‘Best-Chance’ Drug

The Inhibitex drug “is the best chance anyone has of competing with Gilead/Pharmasset,” Brian Skorney, an analyst with Brean Murray Carret & Co. in New York, wrote in an e-mail yesterday. “That explains the premium.”The premium paid by Bristol, of about 126 percent of Inhibitex’s price over the previous 20 trading days, ranks as the second-largest on record for a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company worth more than $500 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg since 1999. UGG Classic Mini 5854 The record is Genzyme Corp.’s 2006 deal for AnorMed Inc. with a 162 percent premium.“The deal seems a bit expensive for an early-stage compound, but there is scarcity value,” said Miller Tabak’s Funtleyder, whose fund holds Bristol shares.The biggest previous deal since 2007 was the acquisition of Medarex Inc. for $2.5 billion in 2009. That purchased gained the company its Yervoy cancer drug.Bristol is already developing its own medicines for hepatitis C, including a collaboration with New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson on a combination therapy with one of its own experimental products.