It’s been a busy year for Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and its bankers. After two deals announced in 2020, the pharma giant is back for more with a $13.1 billion cash offer ($225 per share) for MyoKardia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYOK).
MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on targeted therapies for the treatment of serious cardiovascular diseases. Through the transaction, Bristol Myers gains mavacamten, a potential first-in-class cardiovascular medicine for the treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (“HCM”), a chronic heart disease with high morbidity and patient impact.
A New Drug Application for mavacamten is expected to be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the first quarter of 2021. Bristol Myers expects to explore mavacamten’s full potential in additional applications, including non-obstructive HCM, as well as build on MyoKardia’s pipeline of novel compounds, including two promising clinical-stage therapeutics, danicamtiv (formerly MYK-491) and MYK-224.
The acquisition strengthens Bristol Myers’ cardiovascular portfolio with a drug that has significant commercial potential in its lead application, obstructive HCM. The company already markets Eliquis (apixaban), the leading oral anticoagulant globally.
The transaction is expected to add a significant growth driver during the medium- to long-term. It is expected to be minimally dilutive to Bristol Myers Squibb’s non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) in 2021 and 2022 and accretive beginning in 2023. The company reaffirms its existing 2021 non-GAAP EPS guidance range.
This is Bristol Myers’ biggest deal in 2020, and the largest following its $74 billion acquisition of Celgene Corporation in January 2019. That deal bolstered its oncology and inflammatory disease portfolios. In May 2020, BMY paid $65 million to collaborate with Repare Therapeutics, Inc. and its SNIPRx platform to jointly identify multiple synthetic lethal precision oncology targets for drug candidates. In August, it added Forbius, a clinical-stage protein engineering company, for an undisclosed price.
