Bristol Myers Squibb to acquire MyoKardia to gain access to mavacamten

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has agreed to acquire California-based clinical-stage biopharma company MyoKardia for $13.1 billion, to gain access to the latter’s cardiovascular drug candidate mavacamten.

The US pharma giant is offering to acquire MyoKardia for $225.00 per share in an all-cash deal.

Mavacamten is being developed for the treatment of a chronic heart disease called obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), which is associated with high morbidity and patient impact.

Giovanni Caforio – Board Chair and CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb said: “The acquisition of MyoKardia further strengthens our portfolio, pipeline and scientific capabilities, and is expected to add a meaningful medium- and long-term growth driver.

“We are further strengthening our outstanding cardiovascular franchise through the addition of mavacamten, a promising medicine with the potential to address a significant unmet medical need in patients with cardiovascular disease.

“Our companies share a commitment to innovation and bold science, and our respective strengths will help us realize the value inherent in this portfolio. We have long admired MyoKardia and what they have done to revolutionize cardiovascular treatments through a precision medicine approach.”

Bristol Myers Squibb acquisition of MyoKardia. Photo courtesy of Rept0n1x/Wikipedia.org.

MyoKardia is expected to submit a new drug application (NDA) for mavacamten to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Q1 2021 for the treatment of symptomatic obstructive HCM. The NDA will be based on the findings of the EXPLORER-HCM study.

Bristol Myers Squibb said that it will look to study the full potential of mavacamten in other indications such as non-obstructive HCM. Besides, the US pharma giant plans to develop MyoKardia’s pipeline of novel compounds, which include a couple of clinical-stage therapeutics – danicamtiv (previously MYK-491) and MYK-224.

Tassos Gianakakos – CEO of MyoKardia said: “Bristol Myers Squibb shares our vision for transforming the treatment of cardiovascular disease. They value our team and the potential of our platform and, most importantly, share our unwavering commitment to placing patients at the center of everything we do.

“Together, our complementary strengths and expanded resources and reach will further accelerate the pace at which we can discover, develop and commercialize our novel medicines for the benefit of people suffering from cardiovascular disease around the world.”

The deal is subject to meeting of customary closing conditions and is expected to close in Q4 2020.

In late 2019, Bristol Myers Squibb wrapped up its $74 billion acquisition of US biotech company Celgene.