AstraZeneca to pay Bristol-Myers Squibb $135 mn more for Amylin drug rights

AstraZeneca yesterday said that it has exercised its option to pay an additional $135 million to Bristol-Myers Squibb to get certain additional governance rights over key strategic and financial decisions regarding drugs developed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals, the diabetes drugs developer acquired by them jointly in June.

AstraZeneca will pay the $135 million to Bristol-Myers Squibb soon after the anti-trust and other competition regulators approve the acquisition of Amylin.

Global pharmaceutical major Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca had teamed up to buy Amylin – a San Diego, California-based biopharmaceutical company that specialises in delivering novel therapies for diabetes and other metabolic disorders, for $7 billion. (See: Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca expand alliance through Amylin acquisition)

Under the deal, New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb will acquire Amylin for $5.3 billion, and the total value of the transaction, including $1.7 billion in Amylin's net debt and a contractual payment obligation to Eli Lilly & Co, is approximately $7 billion.

Post acquisition, AstraZeneca will pay Bristol-Myers Squibb $3.4 billion in cash for 50 per cent of the profits from Amylin's drugs, and the right to exercise an option that will give them a 50 per cent share in deciding how Amylin's existing and experimental drugs are managed.

Amylin's assets include treatments for type 2 diabetes, Byetta injection and Bydurion, Metreleptin, a leptin analog currently under review at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of diabetes, and Symlin for the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.