BMS completes acquisition of Amylin, AZ buys equal share

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

It has been announced that following Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMS) successful acquisition of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca (AZ) has made an initial payment of approximately US $3.2 billion, so that the marketing of Amylin’s portfolio of diabetes products, and profits and losses arising from the collaboration will be shared equally. A further payment will made in the future, to take the total up to US $3.4 billion.

BMS and AZ entered into collaboration in January 2007, to enable the companies to research, develop and commercialize certain drugs for type 2 diabetes.

AZ has also informed BMS of its intention to exercise its option to acquire certain additional governance rights over key strategic and financial decisions regarding Amylin’s portfolio. The portfolio includes Byetta, launched in 2005, and the longer-acting version, Bydureon, which was approved by US regulators earlier this year. Upon the exercise of this option, AZ will pay BMS a total of US $135 million.

“We are delighted to have successfully completed the expansion of our diabetes alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb through the addition of Amylin’s GLP-1 franchise, creating a broader disease management platform for patients, physicians and payers. We are looking forward to working with the team at Amylin to build on their success and maximize AstraZeneca’s and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s combined capabilities to make these innovative treatments available to diabetes patients across the world.”

Simon Lowth, Interim Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca has also announced that it will be ceasing its second stage trials of CytoFab (AZD9773), after the drug, for patients with severe sepsis and / or septic shock, failed significantly to aid patients. The experimental medicine is owned by specialist healthcare company, BTG, but licensed to the Anglo-Swedish group. As the drug did not meet its primary endpoint, AstraZeneca will hand the asset back to BTG.