Bristol-Myers Squibb
“Squibb” redirects here. It is not to be confused with Squib.
A Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D facility in Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), often referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City. The company was formed in 1989, following the merger its predecessors Bristol-Myers and the Squibb Corporation. Squibb was founded in 1858 by Edward Robinson Squibb in Brooklyn, New York, while Bristol-Myers was founded in 1887 byWilliam McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers in Clinton, New York (both were graduates ofHamilton College).
Lamberto Andreotti became the company’s CEO on May 4, 2010. Former CEO James M. Cornelius remains chairman of the Board of Directors.
Bristol-Myers Squibb manufactures prescription pharmaceuticals in several therapeutic areas, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis and psychiatric disorders. Its mission is to “discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases.” Over the past several years BMS had been upping the price of its medicines to bolster profits. In 2008 Sprycel gained notoriety as the drug with the largest annual price increase, at 32%.
BMS’ primary R&D sites are located in Princeton, New Jersey (formerly Squibb) and Wallingford, Connecticut (formerly Bristol-Myers), with other sites in Hopewell and New Brunswick, New Jersey, and in Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium, and Tokyo.
A major restructuring involves focusing on the pharmaceutical business and biologic products along with productivity initiatives and cost-cutting and streamlining business operations through a multi-year program of on-going layoffs. As another cost-cutting measure Bristol-Myers also reduced subsidies for health-care to retirees and plans to freeze their pension plan at the end of 2009.[citation needed]
In November 2009, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that it was “splitting off” Mead Johnson Nutrition by offering BMY shareholders the opportunity to exchange their stock for shares in Mead Johnson. According to Bristol-Myers Squibb, this move is expected to further sharpen the company’s focus on biopharmaceuticals.
In 2005, BMS was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.[3]
BMS is a Fortune 500 Company (#129 in 2007 list). Newsweek’s 2009 Green Ranking recognized Bristol-Myers Squibb as 8th among 500 of the largest U.S. corporations. Also, BMS was included in the 2009 Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index of leading sustainability-driven companies.
In August 2009, BMS acquired the biotechnology firm Medarex as part of the company’s “String of Pearls” strategy of alliances, partnerships and acquisitions.[4]
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Pharmaceuticals
The following is a list of key pharmaceutical products:[5]
- Abilify (aripiprazole)
- Atripla (efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir)
- Avalide (irbesartan-hydrochlorothiazide)
- Avapro (irbesartan)
- Baraclude (entecavir)
- Coumadin (warfarin)
- Erbitux (cetuximab)
- Ixempra (ixabepilone)
- Onglyza (saxagliptin)
- Orencia (abatacept)
- Plavix (clopidogrel)
- Reyataz (atazanavir)
- Sprycel (dasatinib)
- Sustiva (efavirenz)
Taxol
At one time, BMS held the solitary contract to harvest the bark of endangered yew trees on United States territory for the manufacture ofchemotherapy drug paclitaxel (Taxol). Current paclitaxel production comes from renewable sources. BMS also held the original paclitaxel license, but there are now multiple generic producers.[citation needed]
Products under development
The following is a selective list of investigational products under development:[6]
- Ipilimumab
- Belatacept
- Apixaban
- Tanespimycin
- Brivanib
- XL-184 In June 2010, BMS returned the rights to deveop & promote XL 184 to Exelexis.
- Dapagliflozin
Scandals and allegations
The company was involved in an accounting scandal in 2002 that resulted in a significant restatement of revenues from 1999–2001. The restatement was the result of an improper booking of sales related to “channel stuffing,” or the practice of offering excess inventory to customers to create higher sales numbers. The company has since settled with the United States Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing to pay $150 million while neither admitting nor denying guilt.[7]
According to an FTC consent order filed in 2003,[8] the company
engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts over the past decade to obstruct the entry of low-price generic competition for three of Bristol’s widely-used pharmaceutical products: two anti-cancer drugs, Taxol and Platinol, and the anti-anxiety agent BuSpar. Bristol avoided competition by abusing federal regulations to block generic entry; deceived the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to obtain unwarranted patent protection; paid a would-be generic rival over $70 million not to bring any competing products to market; and filed baseless patent infringement lawsuits to deter entry by generics.
The company has also been sued in this matter by state attorneys general to recover monetary damages.
As part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, the company was placed under the oversight of a monitor appointed by the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. In addition, the former head of the Pharma group, Richard Lane, and the ex-CFO, Fred Schiff, were indicted for federal securities violations.
An investigation of the company was made public in July 2006, and the FBI raided the company’s corporate offices. The investigation centered around the distribution of Plavix and charges of collusion.[9]
On September 12, 2006, the monitor, former Federal Judge Frederick B. Lacey, urged the company to remove then CEO Peter Dolan over the Plavix dispute. Later that day, BMS announced that Dolan would indeed step down.[10].
The Deferred Prosecution Agreement expired in June 2007 and the Department of Justice did not take any further legal action against the company for matters covered by the DPA. Under CEO Jim Cornelius, who was CEO following Dolan until May 2010, all executives involved in the “channel-stuffing” and generic competition scandals have since left the company.