Now, that the drugmaker is offering to buy ImClone Systems, does this make it more likely another drugmaker would want to buy Bristol-Myers? One analyst, Sanford Bernstein’s Tim Anderson believes the answer is, drumroll, yes. In an investor note this afternoon, he writes that scooping up ImClone makes Bristol-Myers more “sellable,” because it would be “a more robust cancer company.”

Why? Besides full rights to the Erbitux cancer med, ImClone also has a pipeline of five monoclonal antibodies that are in Phase I or Phase II development. Meanwhile, Bristol has been selling off businesses, such as ConvaTec, which heightens its appeal as a pure pharma play. And of course, Bristol has been throwing thousands of employees overboard - about 4,300 jobs are going with an eye toward cutting $1.5 billion by 2012, and another $1 billion in savings is now planned (back story).

But who would be interested? There was chatter about a deal with Schering-Plough a couple of years ago, but that may hold less appeal now, given the celebrated problems with Vytorin. A more likely candidate might be Pfizer, which may have the financial werewithal to look at a drugmaker with a market cap of approximately $40 billion and a pressing need to solve its pipeline problems. We continue to hear, in fact, that doing a big deal divides decisionmakers at Pfizer’s highest levels, which suggests the notion shouldn’t be ruled out.