Bristol-Myers Squibb settlement receives preliminary approval

Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced that a court has granted its preliminary approval for the settlement of the shareholder action it has pursued – Sampson vs Robinson.

The settlement, which concerns allegations relating to the efforts to settle the Plavix patent litigation in 2006, now awaits final court approval.

According to a statement from Bristol-Myers Squibb, a final approval hearing has been scheduled for December 8th 2009 and, ahead of this, the firm has provided its shareholders with a notice of the terms of the proposed settlement.

Posted on its website, the terms outline their rights in relation to the outcome of the case.

In other Bristol-Myers Squibb news, the firm announced last week that it has extended its cash tender offer to purchase outstanding shares of common stock of Medarex.

This takes the existing timeframe for the offer to midnight on August 26th 2009, a date originally scheduled to expire two days before.