AstraZeneca's share price has more than quadrupled during Pascal Soriot's 14-year tenure as CEO, soaring above the wider FTSE 100 index and main British rival GSK GSK.L.
Second-quarter results last week showed strong demand for cancer and rare disease drugs continues to drive growth. Cancer treatments accounted for about $25 billion in 2025 sales, nearly half of the total, followed by cardiovascular, renal and metabolism treatments worth about $12 billion.
Combining with Bristol Myers, whose shares are up around 44% over the last year, could draw attention from antitrust regulators. Oncology drugs accounted for over 40% of its overall sales in the first six months of 2026, and the two companies' cancer immunotherapies directly compete.
"I would expect a Trump FTC to scrutinize the merger and if there are significant overlaps in certain drugs and late stage pipeline overlaps it would require meaningful divestitures," said antitrust lawyer Andre Barlow with DBM Law Group, referring to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Bristol Myers has been doing smaller deals to gain new drugs as it faces declining sales of older medicines, some of which will soon face generic competition.
In 2019, Bristol Myers bought Celgene for about $80 billion, acquiring its flagship blood cancer drug Revlimid, which became Bristol's top-selling product. Revlimid has already lost patent protection and its current top sellers — cancer immunotherapy Opdivo and blood thinner Eliquis — could lose patent protection by 2028.
Barlow noted that in the deal for Celgene, the Trump FTC required Celgene to sell psoriasis treatment Otezla, a major divestiture at $13.4 billion.
"There is bipartisan support to scrutinize pharma deals so I would imagine that even the Trump FTC would ask the broader questions relating to bundling of products and a lack of future innovation, in addition to scrutinizing all direct overlaps," he said.
Bristol raised its full-year revenue and profit forecast last week as strong sales of Eliquis and newer medicines pushed second-quarter results well past analysts' estimates.
Its promising newer drugs and pipeline assets include an experimental blood thinner milvexian, anemia treatment Reblozyl and heart drug Camzyos.
Large pharma deals have been rare in recent years
The report of the potential deal comes about a dozen years after AstraZeneca fended off a takeover attempt by larger U.S. rival Pfizer PFE.N.
Large pharma deals have been rare in recent years, in part due to concerns about antitrust and U.S. pressure to keep drug prices low. Besides Bristol and Celgene, AbbVie ABBV.N bought Allergan in 2020 and Takeda and Shire combined in 2019.
AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers discuss potential tie-up
Aug. 2 (Reuters) - UK drugmaker AstraZeneca AZN.L has been exploring a deal to combine with U.S. rival Bristol Myers Squibb BMY.N, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal could create one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies with a combined value of nearly $400 billion.
The companies have held talks on a potential tie-up in recent months, the report said, adding that a deal could materialize soon, but could also be delayed or fall apart.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. AstraZeneca declined to comment, while Bristol Myers did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
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