Transition Diary: Deltagen completes Part 1
Deltagen Inc.'s acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Research Labs L.L.C., formerly CombiChem Inc., which was completed last week, provides the last big piece DGEN needed to complete the first half of its value-added chain through drug discovery. While the company said it is aggressively looking to in-license compounds, and ultimately wants to take drugs into development, for now it has gotten the medicinal chemistry it needed to enable it to make its transition from a gene knockout specialist through lead optimization.
DGEN was able to buy CombiChem for a song - $23.5 million in stock - because owner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY, Princeton, N.J.) didn't want a San Diego-based satellite, according to William Matthews, President and CEO of DGEN. BMY got CombiChem as part of its 2001 acquisition of DuPont Pharmaceuticals, which had purchased CombiChem in 1999 for $95 million in stock(see BioCentury, Oct. 11, 1999). ...