This may not be a bad sign if BMY has to return rights if they have overlapping assets (unlike returning rights bc they think the drug is a dud). A good example of this was when Novartis had to return rights to Array for the braf/mek inhibitors after the asset swap with glaxo bc they already had marketed braf/mek - and as it turned out the array drugs were in fact better (I am long array by the way). (not only did they have to return rights but novartis had to pay them a bunch of money along w funding for ongoing trials)
Actually, I'm not even sure there is true overlap between BMY's existing pipeline and JNCE's drugs. Does BMY have an ICOS agonist already in development (or drug targeting LILRB2 for that matter)? I don't believe so.
Also, I looked at the BMY slides tied to the 2/19 investor presentation (https://www.bms.com/investors/events-and-presentations.html ) and they don't even list either of the JNCE drugs on slide 30 among the "high potential agents and pipeline assets to watch." Note they do identify several other CELG drugs there in similar early stage of development.
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