Drug developer Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. made another deal as it tries to focus on its pharmaceutical business, paying a 233% premium for cancer therapeutics company Kosan Biosciences.
Bristol is paying $190 million cash hoping Kosan's late-stage drug Hsp90, among others, will come to market and bring in a few hundred million dollars.
As part of the biopharma focus, Bristol has made some big divestitures. In May it
sold the ConvaTec wound therapeutics and ostomy care business to Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners LP for $4.1 billion. BSM's medical imaging unit was
sold for $525 million in January to Avista. Also, BSM is selling a small stake in its Mead Johnson division, maker of infant formula Enfamil and other products.
TheDeal.com says the cash Bristol raises will go toward a
series of small and midsize licensing deals and acquisitions, what they call their "string of pearls" strategy; the moves are being led in part by new CFO Jean-Marc Huet, who takes over from Andrew Bonfield. The Deal's Cheryl Meyer reports
the BMS restructuring program, announced in December, will cost the company between $900 million and $1.1 billion on a pretax basis.
Meyer reports that Kosan president and CEO Helen Kim said her company wasn't up for sale and the deal occurred as a result of its partnering efforts which revealed synergies between BMS' and Kosan's programs.
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Baz HiralalSee the Kosan-Bristol announcementGo to the Kosan story from TheDeal.com
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