Pharma BD Deal Intelligence
Millennium paid roughly $2B in stock for COR Therapeutics to gain the Integrilin cardiovascular franchise, then sold the core Integrilin asset to Schering-Plough for just $35.5M upfront three-and-a-half years later. The company pivoted entirely to oncology around Velcade instead, making the COR deal a bust.
Millennium paid ~$2B in stock for COR's cardiovascular franchise, then sold the core asset (Integrilin) for ~$35.5M three-and-a-half years later and pivoted the company entirely to oncology.
Full analysis, sources & comparables →"This merger will create a leading biopharmaceutical company with multiple products on the market, nine candidate products in human clinical trials, four…
WSJ, Boston Globe, NY Times and Dow Jones all reported analyst skepticism about the deal as Millennium's stock sold off and Integrilin sales were perceived to…
Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.
All 4 sources with sentiment breakdown →
Stock-for-stock; 0.9873 Millennium shares per COR share. Brought in Integrilin (eptifibatide) cardiovascular franchise. Closed 2002-02-12.
Millennium paid ~$2B in stock for COR's cardiovascular franchise, then sold the core asset (Integrilin) for ~$35.5M three-and-a-half years later and pivoted the company entirely to oncology.
Assessment window: 15yr post-close.
1M US cases/yr
Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) covers unstable angina and non-ST/ST-elevation myocardial infarction — over 1 million Americans suffer an MI annually and coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death in adults over 35. Patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) are at high risk of peri-procedural ischemic events, creating the niche for IV antiplatelet therapy.
At deal announcement (December 2001), the IV glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor class included three branded agents: Centocor/Eli Lilly's ReoPro (abciximab, approved 1994 — first-mover, used heavily in PCI), COR/Schering-Plough's Integrilin (eptifibatide, approved 1998 for ACS and PCI), and Merck/Schering-Plough's Aggrastat (tirofiban, approved 1998). Integrilin's differentiation rested on reversible binding, a small-molecule peptide profile, and broad ACS labeling. Oral antiplatelets clopidogrel (Plavix, BMS/Sanofi) and aspirin formed the chronic backbone, while heparin/enoxaparin (Lovenox, Aventis) handled anticoagulation. Analysts at the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and NY Times openly questioned the strategic logic of Millennium — a genomics-platform biotech with no marketed products — buying a cardiovascular specialty company at $2B all-stock when Integrilin sales were slipping and IIb/IIIa class growth was decelerating amid newer oral antiplatelets. Deutsche Banc's Dennis Harp was more constructive, arguing COR's hospital-based sales force could be repurposed for oncology and inflammation launches from Millennium's pipeline (Velcade/bortezomib was the lead). The merger gave Millennium near-term cash flow but the IIb/IIIa franchise eroded faster than expected as PCI evolved.
| Deal | Year | Value | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Millennium Pharmaceuticals / COR Therapeutics Inc. (this deal) | 2001 | $2.0B | 21 |
| Abbott Laboratories / Knoll Pharmaceutical Company (BASF Pharma) | 2001 | $6.9B | 100 |
| Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated / Aurora Biosciences Corporation | 2001 | $592M | 95 |
| Amgen Inc. / Immunex Corporation | 2001 | $16.0B | 91 |
| Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB / Biovitrum | 2001 | $493M | 84 |
| Barr Laboratories Inc. / Duramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. | 2001 | $589M | 82 |
| Cephalon Inc. / Group Lafon (France) | 2001 | $450M | 80 |
← Browse all deals · How we score deals
More: 2001 deals