Merck KGaA eyes ImClone, but isn't mystery bidder

Merck KGaA is entering the Bristol-Myers Squibb/ImClone buyout fray. While the German company said it isn't prepared to bid for the whole company, it would be interested in partnering with another drug company to outbid BMS's current $62-per-share offer.

Merck doesn't have the cash on hand buy ImClone. But speaking to the International Club of Frankfurt Business Journalists, CEO Karl Ludwig Kley, had this to say: "[I[f anyone contacts us to ask whether we want to participate, we will certainly listen carefully... Anyone who wants to take Erbitux further would be well advised to talk to us." Kley claimed that he doesn't know who the  mystery bidder is.

Currently BMS owns 61 percent of the U.S. rights to Erbitux and Merck owns 90 percent of the ex-U.S. rights. "Bristol-Myers can't be happy about Merck's statement that it would in effect support a rival bid," Erik Gordon, a management professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, commented in Forbes.

In mid-September, Kley stated that Merck KGaA is planning a series of acquisitions over the next three years to grow its consumer health and life sciences businesses.

- here's the Forbes article
- read this PharmaTimes report

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