Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

Type	Public
Founded	1887
Headquarters	New York, New York
Key people	James Cornelius, CEO
Industry	Pharmaceuticals
Revenue	▲ US$ 19.98 billion (2008)
Net income	▲ US$ 2.165 billion (2008)
Employees	35,000 (2009)
Website	www.bms.com

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), colloquially referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical company. Founded in 1887 by William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers in Clinton, NY (both were graduates of Hamilton College), Bristol-Myers merged with Squibb Corporation in 1989. James M. Cornelius is the New York City-based company's Chairman and CEO and was granted $25.0 million in compensation in 2008 according to Forbes.

Bristol-Myers Squibb manufactures prescription pharmaceuticals in several therapeutic areas, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis and psychiatric disorders. It is also the parent company of Mead Johnson Nutrition, which manufactures nutritional products such as Enfamil baby formulas and infant vitamin supplements like Tri-Vi-Sol. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a mission to "Extend and Enhance Human Life" and works to discover and develop medicines in areas of serious unmet medical need.

BMS' primary R&D sites are located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey (formerly Squibb) and Wallingford, Connecticut (formerly Bristol-Myers), with other sites around the US, in Ireland, and in other countries.

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 drastically reduced subsidies for health-care to retirees and plans to freeze their pension plan at the end of 2009.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005, BMS was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.^[1]

BMS is a Fortune 500 Company (#129 in 2007 list).

In August 2009, BMS acquired the biotechnology firm Medarex as part of the company's "String of Pearls" strategy of alliances, partnerships and acquisitions.^[2]

Contents 1 Pharmaceuticals 1.1 Taxol 2 Products under development 3 Scandals and allegations 4 References

[edit] Pharmaceuticals

The following is a list of key pharmaceutical products:^[3]

• 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)

[edit] Taxol

At one time, BMS held the solitary contract to harvest the bark of endangered yew trees on United States territory for the manufacture of chemotherapy 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]}

[edit] Products under development

The following is a selective list of investigational products under development:^[4]

• Ipilimumab
• Belatacept
• Apixaban
• Tanespimycin
• Brivanib
• XL-184
• Dapagliflozin
• Onglyza (Saxagliptin)

[edit] 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.^[5]

According to an FTC consent order filed in 2003,^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8].

Under Cornelius's reign, all executives involved in the "channel-stuffing" and generic competition scandals have since left the company. The latest being Andrew Bodnar, Executive VP, who has been indicted due to his involvement in the Plavix-Apotex episode. In April 2009, Bodnar pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

• Bristol-Myers Squibb - Company Profile and News Archive