The past few years have brought some groundbreaking drug launches, such as the record-breaking Gilead Sciences rollout of its hepatitis C medicines and the first PD-1 cancer fighters from Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). This year, though, looks to be somewhat slower on that front. Drug firms will aim most of their new launches at smaller markets or will build on existing franchises. Still, Merck (MRK), Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Eli Lilly
Big pharma Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) said Friday that it’s selling its HIV drug pipeline to ViiV Healthcare, a company majority-owned by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), in two transactions worth up to $2.9 billion. ViiV agreed to pay $350 million upfront for two clinical-stage products, one in late phase-two testing and other in phase three, along with a number of preclinical and discovery programs. Bristol-Myers can receive up to $518 million in
For the past year, the talk concerning Bristol-Myers Squibb has focused on its cancer drugs. This is understandable, since Bristol-Myers’ (BMY) recently launched Opdivo is projected to take in nearly $9 billion a year by 2020, and looks like it will carry other immuno-oncology drugs such as Yervoy to greater sales as well. At the same time, Bristol-Myers has scaled back its ambitions in virology as Gilead Sciences (GILD) has taken the lead in the