Bris­tol My­ers sued over $6B Cel­gene CVR as trustee claims 'bla­tant mis­con­duc­t' for liso-cel de­lays

Af­ter Bris­tol My­ers Squibb’s $74 bil­lion buy­out of Cel­gene, the in­dus­try in­tense­ly scru­ti­nized whether or not the Big Phar­ma would ul­ti­mate­ly hit its drug ap­proval dead­lines to pay out for­mer Cel­gene share­hold­ers more than $6 bil­lion as part of the $9 CVR as­so­ci­at­ed with the ac­qui­si­tion.

Now that the CVR has gone ka­put, those share­hold­ers are tak­ing Bris­tol My­ers to court.

In an un­sur­pris­ing move that could be the first of many law­suits, a bank rep­re­sent­ing Cel­gene stake­hold­ers sued Bris­tol My­ers on Thurs­day, for pur­pose­ly de­lay­ing the de­vel­op­ment of liso-cel in or­der to avoid pay­ing out the CVR. The firm, UMB Bank, al­leged the Big Phar­ma en­gaged in “bla­tant mis­con­duct” by fail­ing to meet the stan­dards set out in the CVR’s broad “Dili­gent Ef­forts” clause and is look­ing for $6.4 bil­lion in resti­tu­tion.

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