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Oct 5, 2020 - Health

Bristol Myers Squibb to buy cardiovascular drug developer MyoKardia for $13.1 billion

Dan Primack
illustration of a heart rate monitor

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to buy MyoKardia, a South San Francisco-based cardiovascular drug developer, for $13.1 billion in cash.

Why it matters: This illustrates the diversification downside of last year's $74 billion tie-up with Celgene, which made Bristol Myers heavily reliant on cancer therapies.

  • The deal values MyoKardia at $225 per share, representing a 61.2% premium to Friday's closing price.

The bottom line: "Bristol Myers gains mavacamten, an experimental heart disease therapy with blockbuster potential. The drug is being tested for treating obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease where a heart muscle thickens and obstructs blood flow. It affects up to 200,000 people across the U.S. and Europe," reports Reuters.

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