BMS ImClone bid ‘depends on next-gen Erbitux rights’

The success of plans by Bristol-Myers Squibb to purchase ImClone Systems depend on the ownership of the rights to the follow up to cancer treatment Erbitux (cetuximab), it has been claimed.

According to the Wall Street Journal, both companies are in conflict over who owns the rights to the oncology compound, which it claims carries high expectations when it comes on to the market some time in the next decade.

Currently, ImClone claims to own the complete rights to the drug, while BMS claims otherwise.

The conflict centres on whether IMC-11F8 – the next-generation Erbitux – is derived from the current Erbitux and whether it is a “competing product” to the original compound.

If either of these statements is deemed true, BMS can claim the rights to the treatment.

Eric Schmidt, analyst at Cowen & Co, said: “My read is that the contract language is nebulous. [There is] clearly room for [BMS] to claim one thing and [ImClone] the other.”

BMS is currently attempting to purchase 83 per cent of ImClone – the proportion of the company it does not yet own – for the sum of $4.5 billion (2.4 billion pounds).

In November 2007, BMS and ImClone confirmed Erbitux had demonstrated a significant improvement in overall survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer compared to other chemotherapy agents.