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Private company

Medarex

American biopharmaceutical company

Medarex was an American biopharmaceutical company based in Princeton, New Jersey, with manufacturing facilities in Bloomsbury and Annandale, New Jersey, and research facilities in Milpitas and Sunnyvale, California. In 2009, Medarex was purchased by Bristol Myers Squibb. Medarex developed monoclonal antibodies to CTLA-4 and PD-1, which are proteins on the surface of T cells.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

  • Industrypharmaceutical industry1

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Medarex was an American biopharmaceutical company based in Princeton, New Jersey, with manufacturing facilities in Bloomsbury and Annandale, New Jersey, and research facilities in Milpitas and Sunnyvale, California. In 2009, Medarex was purchased by Bristol Myers Squibb.2

The story

Medarex was founded in 1987 by a group of immunologists at Dartmouth Medical School—Dr. Michael W. Fanger, Dr. Paul M. Guyre, and Dr. Edward D. Ball — who partnered with Donald L. Drakeman and Charles Schaller of Essex Chemical Company, through its venture capital arm Essex Vencap.

Drakeman, a Dartmouth graduate, brought the parties together and served as the company's chief executive officer. The company went public in 1991, with 2,300,000 shares of common stock at $6.10 per share and 2,250,000 Redeemable Warrants offered at its IPO. The company's second president and CEO was Howard H. Pien, succeeding Drakeman in 2007. Genmab was founded as a European spin-off of American Biotech company Medarex in February 1999.

The company was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2009 for $2.4 billion, which included $300 million in debt, making the payment to Medarex $2.1 billion.

From Wikipedia’s article on Medarex, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Sources

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