AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb Reported to Have Held Mega-Merger Talks

AstraZeneca’s reported preliminary merger talks with Bristol Myers Squibb — a tie-up markets valued near $400 billion — drew a skeptical response from industry analysts, several of whom called the strategic rationale perplexing and flagged the execution risk of pursuing a deal at that scale.

Today’s top developments:

• AstraZeneca shares fell after reports it held preliminary merger talks with Bristol Myers Squibb, a combination markets pegged near $400 billion that would rank among pharma’s largest-ever deals and create an oncology-immunology giant (STAT)
• Curium agreed to acquire Lantheus for $8 billion, merging two of radiopharma’s biggest names into an end-to-end diagnostics-and-therapeutics leader amid surging appetite for targeted radioligand therapies (Pharmaphorum)
• BioNTech named Sobi’s long-serving chief Guido Oelkers as its next CEO, succeeding cofounder Ugur Sahin as the company pushes beyond mRNA vaccines into oncology (STAT)
• HRSA revived a Trump-administration plan to force rebates into the roughly $100 billion 340B discount program from 2027, starting with 25 IRA-negotiated drugs including Ozempic and Eliquis and drawing immediate threats of hospital litigation (BioPharma Dive)
• Sandoz floated roughly $478.5 million across two settlements — including $400 million over seven years to 43 US states and territories — to resolve the bulk of its lingering generic price-fixing claims without admitting wrongdoing (Fierce Pharma)