Will BMS and AZ strike gold with Amylin?
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Gaining access to an effective glucagon-like peptide -1 receptor agonist (GLP-1) had been on the to-do list of AstraZeneca R&D president Dr Martin Mackay ever since he arrived at the company from Pfizer in mid-2010, so it was no surprise that AstraZeneca was in the final mix as a potential acquirer of Amylin Pharmaceuticals (scripintelligence.com, 2 July, 2012). Indeed, AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb had been singled out by Scrip as the front runners in the race for Amylin, but what no one had expected was for the race to end in a dead heat with AstraZeneca opting to ride on the coat tails of the its US rival's acquisition of Amylin (scripintelligence,com, 27 June, 2012).