The FDA approved Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMY) drug Opdivo for non-squamous lung cancer Friday afternoon, almost three months ahead of its deadline, boosting Bristol-Myers stock. Opdivo had already been approved for melanoma and for squamous-cell lung cancer, which represents a minority of lung-cancer patients. The FDA had until Jan. 2 to decide whether to allow it for patients with the more common non-squamous variety that had worsened after one
Health care giants Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) both got upgraded to buy Tuesday, as analysts saw bright futures for their drugs despite the current market pounding. UBS analyst Marc Goodman raised his price target on Bristol-Myers to 75 from 65 and upgraded the stock to buy from neutral. He lifted his 2020 sales estimate on the recently launched cancer drug Opdivo to $10 billion from $8 billion, based on results from a
Piper Jaffray placed its bets in the biotech M&A speculation game Friday, saying that Gilead Sciences (GILD) could acquire Incyte (INCY) or Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) but probably wouldn’t be as interested in Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX). In a report reviewing M&A in the biopharma sector, analyst Joshua Schimmer wrote that “the best fit for Gilead is a derisked, later-stage asset or collection of assets, particularly in light of the company’s