Bristol-Myers CFO: We could walk away from ImClone

Images (showing 1 of 2 photos)

TRENTON — Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. might be willing to drop its quest to acquire partner biotech company ImClone Systems Inc. — under unspecified conditions.

Jean-Marc Huet, who became chief financial officer at Bristol-Myers five months ago, told analysts Tuesday his company could abandon its $4.5 billion offer for the 83 percent of ImClone it doesn't already own.

"There are situations in which we are willing, and we've disclosed that, we're willing to walk away," Huet said in response to a question at a pharmaceutical investors conference in London sponsored by Merrill Lynch.

"You should never fall in love with an asset," Huet said.

He said the deal would be a "very nice bolt-on acquisition" that would simplify the companies' relationship and give Bristol-Myers new capabilities.

Asked what his company will do with its available cash — including $3.7 million in net proceeds from its August sale of its high-tech dressing and wound-care business, ConvaTec — Huet said that if the ImClone acquisition doesn't happen, "we have a variety of different alternatives in terms of cash usage."

A company spokesman said there would be no additional comment on the issue Tuesday.

Huet's comment was the latest in the recent verbal sparring since Bristol-Myers on July 31 made an unsolicited offer of $60 per share for ImClone, which has just one product on the market, the lucrative colon- and head-and-neck-cancer drug Erbitux.

Days later, ImClone said the buyout offer "substantially undervalues" the company. Its chairman, activist billionaire investor Carl Icahn, was said to be personally against the deal.

Last Wednesday, ImClone said it was considering a buyout offer worth $70 per share — roughly $6.1 billion — from an unidentified large pharmaceutical company.

The next day, Bristol-Myers reiterated its $60 per share offer, complaining in a letter to Icahn and ImClone's board of directors that ImClone officials had yet to talk to Bristol about its offer. Icahn then fired back that he had tried to reach Bristol-Myers CEO James N. Cornelius to discuss ImClone's position before making it public.

All that seems to leave the next move up to the secret suitor, which has until next Thursday to review ImClone's books and decide whether to make a firm offer.

Meanwhile, ImClone reported Tuesday that Erbitux failed to meet a secondary goal in a study of increasing patients' overall survival, although earlier results from the study showed it did increase patients' survival without their cancer progressing.

In trading Tuesday, shares of ImClone fell $3.33, or 5.2 percent, to $60.39, while shares of Bristol-Myers dipped 9 cents to $21.46.

Back To Top