AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb never held merger discussions and are not in talks now, a senior source close to the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. “There is no deal between AstraZeneca and BMS.
There never was a deal to be done, and there are no discussions between the companies,” the source said, under the cover of anonymity
Neither company offered a comment when contacted by Reuters. The denial came days after reports that the two pharmaceutical companies had been in preliminary discussions about a combination that could have created a company worth close to $400 billion. The Financial Times first reported the story.
Reuters, which broke the Sunday story on the preliminary talks, noted at the time that it could not confirm whether those conversations were still active. AstraZeneca shares dropped roughly 9% in the wake of the deal reports, while Bristol Myers Squibb shares weathered the news with relatively little movement. When the merger reports first surfaced, as covered earlier this week, AstraZeneca stock tumbled as much as 7% on Monday.