Posts Tagged ‘bmy’

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN) soars on news of rejection of Bristol-Myers takeover bid

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

Shares of diabetes drug maker Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMLN) were up more than 50 percent from Tuesday’s closing price in morning trading on Wednesday after Bloomberg reported that Amylin rebuffed an unsolicited takeover bid from pharma giant Bristol-Myers Squib Co. (NYSE: BMY) for $3.5 billion, or $22 a share.

According to data provided by Yahoo Finance, shares of AMLN touched a high of $23.50 on Wednesday, up from Tuesday’s closing price of $15.39.

Reuters reported that Amylin has been considered a possible takeover target for quite some time. Spokeswomen for Bristol-Myers and Amylin refused to comment, Reuters reported.

Bristol Myers Squibb BMY“Bristol as an acquirer makes sense,” Robyn Karnauskas, an analyst with Deutsche Bank in New York, wrote in a note to clients today, Bloomberg reported. “Amylin could be worth up to $31 a share based on expense synergies. However, Bristol is financially disciplined.”

There have been 16 acquisitions more than $1 billion of biotech companies in Amylin’s peer group in the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average disclosed size was $8 billion, with an average premium of 35 percent, the Bloomberg data show.

 

Inhibitex Inc INHX shares more than double on buyout news

Monday, January 9th, 2012

Inhibitex Inc INHXShares of  hepatitis C drug developer Inhibitex, Inc. (Nasdaq: INHX) were up more than 140 percent from Friday’s closing price in morning trading on Monday after it was announced over  the weekend that pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) made a $26 a share cash  to acquire Inhibitex.

The $26 cash offer for Alpharetta-based Inhibitex represents a 163 premium to Friday’s closing price of $9.87.

“The acquisition of Inhibitex builds on Bristol-Myers Squibb’s long history of discovering, developing and delivering innovative new medicines in virology and enriches our portfolio of investigational medicines for hepatitis C,” said Lamberto Andreotti, chief executive officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb in a January 7 press release. “There is significant unmet medical need in hepatitis C. This acquisition represents an important investment in the long-term growth of the company.”

Inhibitex’s lead hepatitis C asset  is INX-189, an oral nucleotide polymerase (NS5B) inhibitor in Phase II development that has exhibited potent antiviral activity, a high barrier to resistance and pan-genotypic coverage.

“The addition of Inhibitex’s nucleotide polymerase inhibitor to our own promising portfolio, which includes other direct-acting antivirals, brings additional options to develop all-oral regimens with better cure rates, shorter duration of therapy and lower toxicity than the current standard of care,” said Elliott Sigal, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president, chief scientific officer and president, R&D, Bristol-Myers Squibb said in a statement.

The transaction is expected to be dilutive to earnings for Bristol-Myers Squibb through 2016, with an expected impact on earnings per share of approximately $0.04 in 2012 and approximately $0.05 in 2013, the January 7 press release stated.

About Inhibitex, Inc. (Nasdaq: INHX)

Inhibitex, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products to prevent and treat serious infectious diseases. The Company’s clinical-stage pipeline includes two Phase 2 development programs for which it has retained all future rights: INX-189, a nucleotide polymerase inhibitor in development for the treatment of chronic HCV infections, and FV-100, a nucleoside analogue in development for the treatment of shingles-associated pain. The Company also has additional HCV nucleotide polymerase inhibitors in preclinical development and has licensed the use of its proprietary MSCRAMM® protein platform to Pfizer for the development of a staphylococcal vaccine, which is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial.

For additional information about the Company, please visit www.inhibitex.com.

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX) – Buzz Stock of the Day

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Shares of cancer drug developer, Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLDX) were up as much as 22 percent from Monday’s closing price, in morning trading on Tuesday after the company announced positive data for its cancer therapy CDX-1401.

“CDX-1401 represents a new generation of off-the-shelf dendritic cell targeted vaccines built upon excellent preclinical activity data,” said Tom Davis, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Celldex Therapeutics in a statement. ““The initial data from this ongoing study confirm safety and immunogenicity even in patients with advanced cancer who have received multiple prior therapies. CDX-1401 has passed the initial Phase 1 hurdles and we look forward to forthcoming cohorts that will include additional TLR agonists in combination regimens.”

[–quote–]

CDX-1401 is a cancer vaccine designed to activate a patient’s immune system against cancers including melanoma and other cancers that are known to express the tumor antigen NY-ESO-1. The product consists of a fully human monoclonal antibody with specificity for the dendritic cell receptor, DEC-205, genetically linked to the NY-ESO-1 tumor antigen. Celldex has accessed NY-ESO-1 through a multi-year clinical research collaboration with the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. By selectively delivering the NY-ESO-1 antigen to dendritic cells in the body, this product is intended to induce robust immune responses against the antigen-expressing cancer cells.

Here’s Forbes’ report on the data:

The data presented were from a Phase 1/2 dose-escalating clinical trial evaluating three different doses of the vaccine in combination with resiquimod , which is an activator of toll-like receptors 7 and 8 (TLR7/8) and stimulator of immune cells. The study has enrolled 20 patients with advanced cancer, of which 35% had confirmed NY-ESO-1 expression. Six patients maintained stable disease and were eligible for multiple cycles of the treatment regimen, including 4 patients who have received 3 or more cycles (6 weeks of treatment followed by a 6 week rest), with stable disease of up to 11.5+ months. The treatment was well tolerated and there were no dose-limiting toxicities. Robust anti-NY-ESO-1 immunity was induced with the majority of the patients developing anti-NY-ESO-1 antibody responses and 39% of the patients having increases in NY-ESO-1 specific T cell responses, including both CD4 and CD8 responses. Importantly, the T cell responses were directed against multiple regions of the NY-ESO-1 antigen.

Last month, Celldex’s partner Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) pulled out of a strategic partnership to develop the vaccine, and the company said it now plans to develop it on its own.

The finding is yet another example of the potential of cancer immunotherapies — treatments that recruit the immune system to fight cancer.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Dendreon Corp’s (Nasdaq: DNDN) prostate cancer therapy Provenge, the first cancer vaccine. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co’s (NYSE: BMY) immune system treatment ipilimumab also helped to extend the lives of patients with aggressive melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer for which there are few treatment options.