AstraZeneca Shares Drop After Reports of Bristol Myers Squibb Merger Talks

By Adria Calatayud

AstraZeneca shares fell sharply after media reports that the U.K. drugmaker held talks to combine with U.S. rival Bristol Myers Squibb.

Shares in AstraZeneca dropped 7.7% at the opening bell. If maintained until close, this would be the stock's biggest one-day percentage fall since the day of the U.S. presidential election in 2024, according to FactSet data.

The Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that AstraZeneca held discussions with Bristol Myers Squibb about a tie-up in recent months.

An AstraZeneca spokesman declined to comment, while Bristol Myers Squibb didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report caught analysts by surprise. Analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note to clients that they were perplexed by the news, saying it wasn't clear why AstraZeneca would go after the deal and that the portfolio overlap between the two companies would create antitrust hurdles.

Bernstein analysts said in a separate note that the two companies had complementary portfolios in oncology and cardiovascular diseases, but that a deal seemed unlikely to go ahead. Large-scale mergers in the pharma industry tend to destroy research-and-development productivity and AstraZeneca hasn't favored restructuring programs during Chief Executive Pascal Soriot's tenure and already has a strong pipeline, they added.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 03, 2026 03:54 ET (07:54 GMT)