News Summary: Bristol-Myers, Sanofi alter alliance
NEW DEAL: Bristol-Myers Squibb and France's Sanofi are revamping their longtime partnership marketing some of their best-selling medications, blood thinner Plavix and blood pressure drugs Avapro and Avalide.
THE TIMING: All three drugs got generic competition in the U.S. in the spring. The billions of dollars in annual sales they had generated for years is quickly shrinking.
THE TERMS: Bristol-Myers will keep selling Plavix in the U.S. through December 2019. Sanofi will handle nearly all other sales of the three drugs through 2018 and will give Bristol-Myers royalties from that revenue, plus a one-time payment of $200 million.
