Bristol-Myers and AstraZeneca in $1 Billion Drug Pact
Forbes is reporting that AztraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb are teaming up to develop two new type 2 diabetes treatments saxagliptin and dapagliflozin both initially discovered by BMS.
Bristol-Myers, AstraZeneca in Drug Pact - Forbes.com:
Details are that AstraZeneca will pay BMS $100 million upfront and BMS could earn up to another $650 million in development milestones and then another $300 million in sales milestones. This makes the deal worth potentially over $1 billion dollars!!
It is interesting to look at why this deal may have been done. BMS evidently doesn’t feel they could go it alone on this or they would have. They get AstraZeneca to pick up the bulk of the development costs through 2009 and expenses after that being shared. BMS will make the drug and book sales. Also any future compounds discovered by either company would be included under this partnership.
To me this looks like the first step in a possible future merger. If the drugs are blockbusters then it might make sense in the future for them to merge rather than continue the partnership. Only time will tell. Saxagliptin is in late stage clinical trials whereas dapagliflozin is somewhere in the middle of the process, so it will be several years before we’ll know how this plays out. My best guess; if both drugs are approved and are blockbusters then the companies will likely merger sometime after 2010.
Technorati Tags: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, dapagliflozin, diabetes treatment, drug development, pharmaceutical deals, saxagliptin
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