Eli Lilly has agreed to take over ImClone, the biotech company controlled by Carl Icahn, for $6.5bn or $70 per share, trumping a hostile bid from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

BMS said yesterday it would drop its unsolicited offer at $62 per share and sell its stake in ImClone, worth about $1bn. BMS will retain its rights to sell ImClone's Erbitux cancer medicine in the US.