Bristol-Myers bulks up cancer portfolio with $74 billion Celgene deal

Health reporter,bristol(wp/reuters):
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) said on Thursday it would buy Celgene Corp (CELG.O) for about $74 billion (£58.9 billion), creating a major pharma company with several blockbuster cancer drugs as competition in the immunotherapy space heats up.

Bristol-Myers pioneered immunotherapy with its Yervoy and later Opdivo, but has come under pressure as Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) rival treatment Keytruda moved ahead in market share in lung cancer treatment, the most lucrative oncology market.

The deal will create a company with nine treatments bringing in more than $1 billion in annual sales and a significant potential for growth in oncology, immunology and inflammation and cardiovascular disease.

Talks opened in September, with Bristol-Myers approaching Celgene, according to a source familiar with the matter.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Alex Arfaei said the deal addresses a priority for Bristol to diversify from immunotherapy, calling the acquisition opportunistic but expensive.

“This proposed deal does not send a confident signal about Bristol’s independent growth prospects,” Arfaei said in a client note.

Increasing competition for main cancer treatments of both companies and clinical setbacks last year have resulted in investor concern over their future prospects.

Shares of Celgene have lost 38.6 percent of its value in 2018, while those of Bristol-Meyers have shed 15.2 percent.

Last year, Celgene bought experimental cancer drug developer Juno Therapeutics for $9 billion, betting on its chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, known as CAR-T, in a bid to reduce reliance on its mainstay drug, Revlimid.

Brad Loncar, chief executive officer of Loncar Investments, said both companies have made significant mistakes and poor investments in acquisitions and partnerships with smaller companies.

“Both of them were coming into this year kind of limping. Merging together makes the combined entity a lot stronger,” said Loncar, whose firm runs the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF.

Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each share held, or $102.43 per share, a premium of 53.7 percent to Celgene’s Wednesday close.

Bristol-Myers shares fell 9.5 percent at $47.10, while Celgene shares rose 33.5 percent at $88.95 in premarket trading.

Celgene shareholders will also receive one tradeable contingent value right for each share held, which will entitle them to receive a one-time potential payment of $9 in cash upon regulatory approval of ozanimod and liso-cel by Dec. 31, 2020 and bb2121 by March 31, 2021.

Bristol-Myers said it expects to speed up a share repurchase programme of up to about $5 billion, subject to the closing of the transaction, market conditions and board approval.

The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter of 2019. The cash portion will be funded through a combination of cash on hand and debt financing.

The deal is expected to add more than 40 percent to Bristol-Myers’s earnings on a standalone basis in the first full year after the deal closes.

Bristol-Myers has obtained fully committed debt financing from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding Inc and MUFG Bank Ltd.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is the lead financial adviser to Bristol-Myers, and Evercore and Dyal Co. LLC are its financial advisers. Kirkland & Ellis LLP is its legal counsel.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as lead financial adviser and Citi is the financial adviser to Celgene. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is its legal counsel.

Britain names two women to top Bank of England panel

Banking&Finance reporter(wp/reuters):

Bowe, currently chair of the Banking Standards Board (BSB) industry group, will replace Richard Sharp on the FPC, which monitors risks in Britain’s financial system, from the end of March.

Gadhia, who was chief executive of lender Virgin Money for more than 10 years until it was taken over by CYBG (CYBGC.L), will replace Martin Taylor at the end of June.

“As chair of the Banking Standards Board, Colette has led the way in developing and embedding better standards of conduct across the banking sector,” BoE Governor Mark Carney said in a statement on Thursday.

“Jayne-Anne brings deep and relevant experience in retail banking and her successful business career.”

POLITICAL CONTROVERSY

Since the 1990s Bowe has had several jobs at the top of consumer regulation, notably heading the Personal Investment Authority and Britain’s telecoms watchdog, Ofcom.

As a senior civil servant in the 1980s, Bowe was drawn into a political scandal as former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her ministers secretly competed to swing the sale of British helicopter maker Westland to either U.S. or European suitors.

Under orders from the trade and industry minister Leon Brittan and with Thatcher’s blessing, Bowe leaked a confidential legal memo to undermine defence minister Michael Heseltine’s bid to secure a European buyer for Westland.

Bowe kept silent about who ordered the leak for nearly 30 years, citing the principle of confidentiality between ministers and civil servants. She once said she had “nothing but contempt for people who blab”.

As chair of the BSB, which was set up in a bid to improve conduct standards at banks after a string of scandals, she told MPs last year that bankers were still too afraid to admit mistakes to colleagues.

GENDER BALANCE

MPs have previously criticised the finance ministry for appointing too few women to the Bank’s three main monetary, financial and regulation policy committees.

Bowe and Gadhia will bring the total number of female policymakers at the Bank to six, compared with 16 men.

The finance ministry said it interviewed five women and three men for the posts.

Gadhia has long been an advocate for greater representation of women in senior roles in Britain’s financial services, where the four big banks all have male chief executives and chairmen.

Gadhia and Bowe will at some point appear before MPs from parliament’s Treasury Committee.

UK ticket-holder scoops £115m EuroMillions jackpot

Staff reporter(wp/bbc):

A UK lottery player has come forward to claim the £115m New Year's Day EuroMillions jackpot.

The National Lottery said the win is the fourth biggest in UK history and follows a series of big British lottery successes in recent years.

A further 10 UK players have each pocketed £1m after the Millionaire Maker codes on their tickets were picked.

The winning numbers were 01, 08, 11, 25, 28, with Lucky Stars 04 and 06.

Tuesday's ticket-holder matched all seven numbers to take a total jackpot of £114,969,775.70.

Lottery operator Camelot said the winner will choose whether to be named when the ticket is validated and the prize money paid.

The win comes after builder Andrew Clark from Boston, Lincolnshire, was last month revealed as the winner of a £76m EuroMillions jackpot. He found his ticket tucked in the visor of his van six weeks after the draw.

The largest EuroMillions prize in the UK of 2018 - and the third biggest win of all time - was £121m to an anonymous ticket-holder in April.

The biggest lottery prize in UK history is the £161m EuroMillions jackpot won by North Ayrshire couple Chris and Colin Weir in 2011.

In August 2012, Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Haverhill, Suffolk, won more than £148m.

EuroMillions is played in nine countries - the UK, Austria, Belgium, France, the Irish Republic, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland - with ticket-holders trying to win a share of the same jackpot.

Forced marriage victims asked to pay rescue costs

Staff reporter(wp/bbc):

British victims of forced marriages overseas are being asked by the Foreign Office to pay costs associated with their own rescue, it has been revealed.

An investigation by the Times found those unable to cover flights, food and shelter were made to take out a loan.

MPs have condemned the practice as "astonishing" and "immoral".

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he wanted the matter looked into and all British officials abroad should act with "compassion and humanity".

According to the report in the Times, British victims of forced marriage who ask for help abroad are informed about the costs.

UK officials will help them access their own funds, and contact friends, family or organisations that can assist them. But if they cannot find the money, they are asked to sign emergency loan agreements before returning home.

The Foreign Office says it will find funding options for those under the age of 18.

• Javid promises forced marriage crackdown

It has confirmed that between 2016 and 2017, 82 people were repatriated with the support of the government's Forced Marriage Unit and up to 12 loans were granted.

The Times says a Freedom of Information request showed the Foreign Office loaned £7,765 to at least eight victims in the past two years.

About £3,000 has been repaid, but debts of more than £4,500 are outstanding.

The victims helped last year are reported to include seven women found imprisoned in a "correctional school" in Somalia.

Four of the group, who were each charged £740, told the Times the demand had pushed them to the financial brink.

Under Foreign Office terms and conditions, a surcharge of 10% is added if the loan is not repaid within six months.

However, the department said its loans, which can be repaid at £5 a week, were more generous than commercial options.

Charging 'immoral'

Pragna Patel, the founder of Southall Black Sisters - which campaigns on the issue of forced marriage - described the policy as "unprincipled and immoral".

She said the costs would act as "a major deterrent" to people seeking protection from forced marriage.

Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said MPs "will ask questions about this decision".

Writing on Twitter, he said the Foreign Office is "rightly proud" of the forced marriage unit "but we shouldn't be charging the most vulnerable for their own protection or dissuading them from asking for it".

Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Home Affairs Committee, tweeted: "Completely appalled by this. Forced marriage is slavery. For Govt to make victims pay for their freedom is immoral. Ministers need to put this right fast."

A leading expert on forced marriage said the policy was "morally wrong". "Protection should not have a price tag," tweeted Aisha Gill, Professor of Criminology at the University of Roehampton.

As home secretary, Theresa May introduced new laws targeting forced marriage in 2014, and the current Home Secretary Sajid Javid vowed in Augustto "do more to combat it and support victims".

The Foreign Office said emergency loans were used to remove vulnerable people from high-risk situations when there were no other options available to them but "as they are from public funds, we have an obligation to recover the money in due course".

It added that, in most cases, the person would have to give up their passport to the government in order to get a loan.

The passport is not returned until the owner has repaid their loan in full. If the loan is not repaid after six months a 10% surcharge is added to total.

Unless there are "exceptional circumstances", the Foreign Office will not help British nationals return home.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the Foreign Office and the Home Office were doing "an incredible amount to combat forced marriage".

"With this news it's something again for us to focus on and make sure we're doing everything we can," he added.

Mr Hunt, who is on a visit to Singapore, said he had asked officials to give him "proper advice on the whole issue".

"I have always stressed to embassies and posts abroad that they need to use discretion," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.

"Of course, we should behave with compassion and humanity in every situation but I want to get to the bottom of this particular issue."

Sajid Javid defends Channel migrant response on visit to Dover

staff reporter(wp/bbc):

Sajid Javid has told migrants thinking of crossing the English Channel not to risk their lives, as he watched the work of border patrol teams off Dover.

The home secretary defended his call to declare a major incident last week, saying there had been a steep increase in the numbers making the journey.

In response, the UK is to step up the number of vessels patrolling the area.

Mr Javid questioned why "genuine" asylum seekers had not sought refuge in France or elsewhere on the continent.

While the UK would process asylum applications in the normal way, he said he wanted to send a "strong message" that economic migrants would not be allowed to illegally settle in the UK.

Twelve migrants were found on the Kent coast last week, bringing the total number of people to have reached the UK by boat since November to 239.

• Reality Check: How many people seek asylum in the UK?
• Border Force vessels return to patrol Channel
• Why are Iranians crossing the Channel in dinghies?

French police said they stopped 14 migrants attempting to cross the channel from Boulogne on Tuesday, the latest in a growing number of people intercepted by the French authorities in the past month.

As part of a joint action plan agreed with France, Mr Javid - who cut short his holiday to deal with the issue - has ordered two UK Border Force boats to be redeployed from overseas to patrol the Channel.

Only one of the five Border Force cutters - specialist boats which the force describes as being capable of rescuing several migrant boats at the same time - had been working in the Straits of Dover.

The two being brought back are currently in the Mediterranean, where they have been taking part in Operation Frontex, the pan-European effort to deal with much larger migration flows from North Africa and the Middle East to Italy and Greece.

Speaking during a trip to the UK's largest port, in which he went out on patrol on HMC Searcher, the home secretary said the intensified operation would "make a big difference" in protecting human life, as well as securing the UK's borders.

He defended escalating the UK's response, saying 80% of the 539 people who had attempted to cross the Channel in small boats in 2018, had done so since October.

"We have seen a real step change in attempts in the last three months," he said.

"People should not be taking this very dangerous journey and, if they do, we also need to send a very strong message that you won't succeed."

The UK, Mr Javid said, would of course consider asylum applications from victims of political or religious persecution in their native countries.

'Concerning'

But he suggested the UK would take a tough line on economic migrants, so as to send a message to the people smugglers who were exploiting them.

"The question has to be asked - if you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in?

"We need to send a strong message that these gangs preying on you and selling you a false prospectus will not succeed.

"If you somehow do make it to the UK, we will do everything we can to make sure you are ultimately not successful because we need to break the link."

The Refugee Council said Mr Javid's comments were "deeply concerning".

"The outcome of an asylum application cannot be pre-judged before it has been made and must be processed on its individual merit, irrespective of how that person reached the country," Dr Lisa Doyle, director of advocacy at the Refugee Council, said.

"Let us not forget that we are talking about people who are in desperate need of protection, having fled countries with prolific human rights abuses."

Missed GP appointments 'cost NHS England £216m'

Health reporter(wp/bbc):

Patients who miss GP appointments are costing NHS England £216m a year, officials have said.

Data shows more than 15 million consultations are being wasted because patients fail to show up.

NHS England said cancelling appointments would free doctors, nurses and other professionals to see people who need care and attention.

The British Medical Association urged patients to "play their part" to help the NHS cope with rising demand.

NHS Digital GP appointments data shows more than 1.2 million GP hours are being wasted each year.

• Have waits for GP appointments got longer?
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NHS England said each appointment cost an average of £30 and the overall expense of patients not cancelling appointments could pay for the annual salary of 2,325 full-time GPs.

BBC Reality Check: How did they calculate the cost?

If you have a booked GP appointment in England, when the time rolls around your surgery will mark it as either "attended" or "did not attend" in their records.

The figures we have tell us how many booked appointments were not attended by the person who booked them. What it doesn't tell us is whether this time was actually wasted.

GP surgeries can overbook to allow for the fact that some people will not attend. And they may also leave some flexibility for people showing up on the day without a pre-booked appointment.

At the moment, it's not possible to tell how many of these missed appointments resulted in a GP being unoccupied for that slot and how many were taken up instead by a different patient.

Patients missing appointments can certainly cause a headache for surgeries and the Royal College of GPs says it slows down the system.

But the notional cost - calculated by multiplying the £30 average cost of an appointment by how many were missed - doesn't necessarily represent the true cost to the NHS.

'Every appointment precious'

Dr Nikki Kanani, acting director of primary care for NHS England, and a GP in south-east London, pointed out that £216m could also fund about 58,000 hip operations or 220,000 cataract operations.

She told the BBC: "When a patient misses an appointment, my first instinct is to worry. I worry why that person has missed that appointment but then I can't use that time for somebody else.

"So I'll check up on the patient but I'm not able to get anyone else in."

Dr Kanai said it was becoming increasingly easy to manage appointments through the online access offered by many surgeries. adding: "Our message is clear. If you cannot make it to your appointment or no longer need a consultation, please let your GP practice know in advance."

Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said: "There may be many reasons why a patient might miss an appointment, and in some cases it can be an indication that something serious is going on for that individual - but we would urge patients to let us know if they can't attend as soon as possible."

Dr Richard Vautrey, the BMA's GP committee chairman, said: "Every appointment at a GP practice is precious, especially at a time when GP services are struggling to cope with rising patient demand, staff shortages and inadequate budgets.

"Practices will try many ways to address this problem, but ultimately patients do need to play their part."

Bristol student dies after 500ft Ben Nevis fall

Educational reporter(wp/bbc):

A climber has died after falling 500ft from a mountain on New Year's Day.

The female student, who was studying at the University of Bristol, was climbing with three others on Ben Nevis when she plunged to her death.

Mountain Rescue was alerted at about 10:30 to locate the group and remove them from the mountain.

It is the second recent death on Britain's highest peak - Patrick Boothroyd, 21, from West Yorkshire, died in a fall on 16 December.

John Stevenson, from Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team, said that in the latest incident, the woman and her friends had been climbing what is known as the "ledge route".

He said: "I think the rocks would have been pretty icy. It was a big fall."

'Sad start to 2019'

He added: "We had to get the other three off the mountain - they were stuck.

"The weather cleared and the helicopter managed to get in and airlift them.

"The woman was located, she hadn't survived."

A statement posted on the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team Facebook page said: "The team had to recover a young climber who unfortunately lost her life following an accident on Carn Dearg on Ben Nevis.

"We pass on our sincere condolences to her family and friends. A very sad start to 2019."

A University of Bristol spokeswoman said: "It is with great sadness that we can confirm that on 1 January 2019 one of our students died in an accident whilst on a hiking trip to Ben Nevis in Scotland. The student was part of a larger group of students who had organised this new year trip to the Highlands.

"Our hearts go out to the family and friends of this student. This tragic accident will be deeply felt across our university community, and we will make sure we have support available to all those affected."