Is Carl Icahn about to produce the mystery rabbit from his hat? The audience is still waiting after ImClone Systems, the biotech company he chairs, said an unidentified party had completed due diligence, with negotiations under way. There was no mention, though, of the $70 a share, cash price tag previously mooted. And the pharmaceutical company, thought to be Eli Lilly, looking to unseat fellow bidder Bristol-Myers Squibb, remains unnamed.

Mr Icahn has ridiculed the latter’s $62 a share cash offer, which has been laced with increasingly hostile undertones. The combination of Lilly with ImClone, on the face of it, has some merit. Lilly has a number of blockbuster products coming off patent from 2011, such as Zyprexa, its schizophrenia drug. ImClone’s cancer drugs, Erbitux and its 11F8 follow-on, could slot into, and perhaps benefit from, Lilly’s established oncology franchise.