BMS acquires DuPont Pharma

New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. announced that its $7.8 billion acquisition of Wilmington, DE-based DuPont Pharmaceuticals Co. from DuPont is complete. The acquisition, which was announced on June 7, closed on October 1.

"The acquisition of DuPont Pharma will make Bristol-Myers Squibb an even stronger pharmaceutical company," said Peter R. Dolan, chairman and chief executive officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb. "It will enable us to play a greater leadership role, particularly in the areas of virology and cardiovascular diseases, where there is a pressing need to expand treatments and find new and better therapies. Our combined research and development pipelines and truly innovative discovery efforts will usher in medical advances for years to come in many areas of great human need."

New products

With this acquisition, Bristol-Myers Squibb gains several products, including Sustiva™ (efavirenz), a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor for the treatment of HIV/AIDS; Coumadin® (warfarin sodium tablets, USP), an oral blood anticoagulant; and Cardiolite® (kit for the preparation of Technetium Tc99m Sestamibi for injection), a cardiovascular medical imaging agent. Bristol-Myers Squibb also gains an R&D pipeline that includes compounds in five therapeutic areas - virology, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory diseases, cancer and disorders of the central nervous system.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bristol-Myers Squibb paid $7.8 billion in cash for DuPont Pharma. As a result of the transaction, the company expects to record a one-time, in-process R&D write-off and restructuring liability in the range of $2 billion to $3 billion. PR