Bristol-Myers Sells Diabetes JV To AstraZeneca: What The Wags Say

Just 18 months ago, Bristol-Myers Squibb expanded its diabetes franchise by paying $7 billion for Amylin Pharmaceuticals and, simultaneously, broadened a joint venture with AstraZeneca. Now, though, Bristol-Myers is selling its stake in the partnership back to AstraZeneca for as much as $4.5 billion in order to focus on becoming a ‘specialty’ drugmaker. At the time, the deal was seen as a way for Bristol-Myers to develop diabetes products into a growth engine, since Amylin sold the Byetta and Bydureon treatments, while also spreading the risk by expanding its existing deal with AstraZeneca (back story). However, as analysts have noted, the joint venture failed to successfully commercialize those two drugs. “The question now becomes will Astra be able to fix the mess that Bristol created,” writes David Kliff of Diabetic Investor in a note to clients. “Honestly, we’re not sure if Astra is up to the task as the only thing Bristol did really well was screw things up big time. Perhaps a better way to view this might be to ask is the diabetes franchise Humpty Dumpty, an organization so broken that it cannot be put back together again? Or is it like Apple, a company that once was on the brink of disaster, but is now the envy of the tech world? Given the damage inflicted by Bristol’s mismanagement of the franchise, and we’re being kind here, we believe the answer, as always, lies between the two extremes.” For Bristol-Myers, the decision clearly underscores its bet ...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs