Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) purchased diabetes drug-maker Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN) for $5.3 billion on Friday. This is the 5th billion dollar pharmaceutical deal this year, and the largest. Bristol-Meyers complete another acquisition earlier this year.
The deal should be a nice boost for Bristol, who faced initial generic competition for their $7 billion blood-thinning drug, Plavix, for the first time in May.
AstraZeneca (AZN) is going to pay Bristol $3.4 billion to help pipeline the drug.
Diabetes is a problem in the US, especially type 2, which is generally induced by the excess consumption of sugars. The disease is directly related to the obesity epidemic. About 346 million people worldwide are diabetics.
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By buying out Amylin, the desire to compete in the diabetes drug market will most likely become more intense. Other major pharmaceuticals like Pfizer (PFE) and Merck (MRK) could be looking to get in on this so far exclusive market.
The market for new acquisitions by the major drug producers has slowed down recently, partially because there just aren’t too many companies producing drugs with a high potential to succeed.
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