Bristol Myers to Acquire MyoKardia for $13 Billion

Wall Street learned this week that Bristol Myers is expanding its heart drug business with a whopping $13 billion purchase of MyoKardia.

The company announced on Monday that it would buy the company for about $13 billion in cash to bolster its porfolio of heart disease treatments.

Shares of MyoKardia jumped 57.8% to $220.31 on the news, just shy of the offer of $225 per share. The stock had already doubled this year prior to the news.

Bristol Myers will be adding to its existing portfolio of heart drugs that includes blood thinner Eliquis, which made up about 21% of MyoKardia’s total sales in the latest reported quarter. It faces U.S. market exclusivity loss after 2026. The company’s top-selling cancer drug, Revlimid, will also lose some of its U.S. patent exclusivity in 2022.

Bristol Myers said it expects mavacamten to be a “multi-billion dollar asset” and drive significant growth through 2025 and the second half of the decade.

“I think it is a typical acquisition premium for our sales expectations for mavacamten as we had estimates in the initial (and lowest risk) indication of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) of about $2.5 billion by 2026,” remarked Wedbush analyst David Nierengarten, referring to the 61% premium offered by Bristol Myers.

Mavacamten is being developed to treat obstructive and non-obstructive forms of a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

MyoKardia expects to submit marketing application to the U.S. health regulator for obstructive HCM in the first quarter of 2021 after the drug met the main goal of a late-stage study.

“The acquisition of MyoKardia further strengthens our portfolio, pipeline and scientific capabilities, and is expected to add a meaningful medium- and long-term growth driver,” said Giovanni Caforio, M.D., Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Bristol Myers Squibb.

“We are further strengthening our outstanding cardiovascular franchise through the addition of mavacamten, a promising medicine with the potential to address a significant unmet medical need in patients with cardiovascular disease. Our companies share a commitment to innovation and bold science, and our respective strengths will help us realize the value inherent in this portfolio. We have long admired MyoKardia and what they have done to revolutionize cardiovascular treatments through a precision medicine approach. We look forward to welcoming their talented team to our company.”

“MyoKardia was formed eight years ago with the aim of changing the world for people with serious cardiovascular diseases through bold and innovative science. Since then, MyoKardia’s dedicated employees have established an unparalleled pipeline of targeted therapeutics designed to change the course of disease and return the heart to normal function,” said Tassos Gianakakos, Chief Executive Officer of MyoKardia.

“Bristol Myers Squibb shares our vision for transforming the treatment of cardiovascular disease. They value our team and the potential of our platform and, most importantly, share our unwavering commitment to placing patients at the center of everything we do. Together, our complementary strengths and expanded resources and reach will further accelerate the pace at which we can discover, develop and commercialize our novel medicines for the benefit of people suffering from cardiovascular disease around the world.”

It was only last year that Bristol Myers shelled out $74 billion for the acquisition of Celgene to position itself as an oncology giant among rivals like Merck & Co.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.