Medarex is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 biotechnology

Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...

 company

Company

A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...

 owned by Bristol Myers Squibb and based in Princeton

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. The company has manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 facilities in Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury, New Jersey

Bloomsbury is a Borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 870.Bloomsbury was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 30, 1905, from portions of Bethlehem Township.The Borough of...

 and Annandale

Annandale, New Jersey

Annandale is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Clinton Township, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 1,276...

, New Jersey, and research

Research

Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

 facilities in Milpitas

Milpitas, California

Milpitas is a city in Santa Clara County, California. It is a suburb of the major city of San Jose, California. It is located with San Jose to its south and Fremont to its north, at the eastern end of State Route 237 and generally between Interstates 680 and 880 which run roughly north/south...

 and Sunnyvale

Sunnyvale, California

Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Medarex specializes in therapeutic products based on monoclonal antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are monospecific antibodies that are the same because they are made by identical immune cells that are all clones of a unique parent cell....

. In 2005 the Biotechnology Industry Organization

Biotechnology Industry Organization

Biotechnology Industry Organization is an industry lobby group founded 1993 in Washington, D.C. Carl B. Feldbaum was the president until he retired in 2004, and was succeeded by James C. Greenwood.-External links:* *...

 (BIO) and the Long Island Life Sciences Initiative honored Medarex with a James D. Watson

James D. Watson

James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...

 Helix Award.

Ipilimumab

Ipilimumab

Ipilimumab

Ipilimumab , marketed as Yervoy, is a drug used for the treatment of melanoma, a type of skin cancer. It is a U.S...

 (also known as MDX-010 or MDX-101) is a human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

 monoclonal antibody being developed by Medarex in conjunction with Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb , often referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City. The company was formed in 1989, following the merger of its predecessors Bristol-Myers and the Squibb Corporation...

. It is intended to be used as a drug

Drug

A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...

 to activate the immune system

Immune system

An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...

. Ipilimumab has been undergoing clinical trials for the treatment of melanoma

Melanoma

Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells that produce the dark pigment, melanin, which is responsible for the color of skin. They predominantly occur in skin, but are also found in other parts of the body, including the bowel and the eye...

.

Acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb

On July 22, 2009, biopharmaceutical

Biopharmaceutical

Biopharmaceuticals are medical drugs produced using biotechnology. They include proteins , nucleic acids and living microorganisms like virus and bacteria where the virulence of viruses and bacteria is reduced by the process of attenuation, they can be used for therapeutic or in vivo diagnostic...

 drug manufacturer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, offered to acquire Medarex for $16 per share. By August 31, 2009 Bristol Meyers has acquired more than 90% of the outstanding common stock of Medarex and announced they will be filing for a short-form merger.