Eli Lilly agreed to pay $6.5 billion for ImClone Systems, the biotechnology company that is controlled by Carl C. Icahn.

The bid by Lilly for the biotechnology company beat out an offer from Bristol-Myers Squibb, which markets ImClone’s cancer drug Erbitux in the United States along with ImClone.

The bid by Lilly for the biotechnology company beat out an offer from Bristol-Myers Squibb, which markets ImClone’s cancer drug Erbitux in the United States along with ImClone.

The directors of Eli Lilly and ImClone Systems have agreed in principle to Lilly’s acquisition of ImClone for about $6.1 billion.

Eli Lilly’s offering for ImClone Systems would be higher than the hostile $4.7 billion offer that Bristol-Myers Squibb has already made for the shares of ImClone it does not already own.

The bidder for the biotechnology company ImClone said a drug maker that proposed a $6.1 billion takeover would make a formal bid or withdraw by the end of day Wednesday.

The drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb’s previous offer of $60 a share had been rejected by ImClone.

ImClone threw a wrench into a $4.5 billion takeover effort by Bristol-Myers Squibb by saying it was entertaining a higher offer from a new suitor.

ImClone Systems, the maker of the anticancer drug Erbitux, said a $4.5 billion takeover bid by Bristol-Myers Squibb “substantially undervalues” the company.

If they only had been more patient investors of ImClone Systems, Martha Stewart and others might have done just fine, and avoided jail time.