The struggle to gain control over ImClone and its cancer medication Erbitux (cetuximab) has ended with Eli Lilly the victor. The Indianapolis-based company outbid its pharma rival Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), announcing in October that it would acquire ImClone of New York for $6.5 billion in cash. At $70 per share, the deal represents a 51% premium to the closing price one day before the BMS bid became public. New York–based BMS started the bidding in July with a $4.5 billion offer for the 83% of ImClone it did not already own. But after upping its bid to $62, BMS decided it would not increase its offer. Sales of Erbitux, a chimeric anti-epithelial growth factor (EGFR) monoclonal antibody (mAb), are still growing. The drug is currently labeled for use in metastatic colorectal cancer and advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Investment bank Cowen & Co. of New York forecasts that Erbitux will bring in global revenue of $2.2 billion in 2009 with its second-generation fully-human mAb IMC-11F8 bumping sales to $3 billion by 2013. BMS might have wanted to gain rights to IMC-11F8, the promising successor to Erbitux currently mid-stage in the clinical trial process, which has potential to ultimately supersede Erbitux in the marketplace. “Bristol was price sensitive, but I'm not so sure I agree with that decision,” says senior biotech analyst Eric Schmidt of Cowen. “My guess is that 10 years from now, Lilly's going to look very smart.”