Bristol-Myers Squibb incr­eased the pressure on ImClone on Tuesday by raising its bid for the stake in the biotechnology company it does not already own to $4.7bn and stating that it intends to take the offer to ImClone’s shareholders.

Bristol-Myers, a longstanding partner of ImClone that already owns 17 per cent of the company, said it was now willing to pay $62 a share to take ownership of the rest of ImClone.