Tony Hooper pushing for BMS Merger with Amgen taking over

There is strong belief that TH wants Amgen to merge with his old company so that Amgen can jump to being a leader in Immuno-Oncology. David Meline is waiting for tax reform to start the M&A process as organic growth prospects appear weak. In addition to a merger with BMS now that their market cap has been reduced, Amgen is looking to acquire a CAR-T company with Kite being the lead acquisition target. Amgen seems ready to divest in inflammation after Enbrel and Humira biosimilars. Oncology and cardiovascular will be the two most looked upon therapeutic area Amgen wants to focus on, followed by Neuroscience. With more capital at play, even a merger with Biogen after BMS a year later is on the table. It's clear that Amgen's R&D lacks mid-term substantial pipeline agents internally capable of significant growth to offset legacy products. Bolt on acquisitions will not be enough, only a transformative merger will be viable. Amgen's been preparing by divesting real estate holdings in TO.

 

Thanks for the insight.

 

Neuroscience is disposable. In 25 YEARS it's only produced 1 drug, Erenumab, the clinical utility of which is still in question.

 

This prediction seems more true now that Murdo is in Tony’s shoes and likely their heir to Bob Bradway. The man wouldn’t trade for the same role if he was not in the plans to assume the head post.

 

Nohaile’s been wiped off the succession plan then. No one sure what he really does?