Bristol-Myers Squibb

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 of 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 by William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers in Clinton, New York (both were graduates of Hamilton 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."

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.

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 1999, President Clinton awarded Bristol-Myers Squibb the National Medal of Technology, the nation's highest recognition for technological achievement, "for extending and enhancing human life through innovative pharmaceutical research and development and for redefining the science of clinical study through groundbreaking and hugely complex clinical trials that are recognized models in the industry." In 2005, BMS was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.

BMS is a Fortune 500 Company (#114 in 2010 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. In October 2010, the company acquired ZymoGenetics, securing an existing product as well as pipeline assets in hepatitis C, cancer and other therapeutic areas.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. agreed to pay around $2.5 billion in cash to buy Inhibitex Inc. in concern to compete with Gilead/Pharmasset to produce Hepatitis C drugs. The settlement will be finished in 2 months for its Inhibitex's shareholders acceptance of 126 percent premium price of its price over the previous 20 trading days ended at January 6, 2012.

In 2012, the company donated $ 6.9 million to the HealthWell Foundation, which provides financial assistance to eligible people for covering co-insurance, co-payments, healthcare premiums and deductibles for certain treatments.

Pharmaceuticals
The following is a list of key pharmaceutical products:


 * Abilify (aripiprazole)
 * Atripla (efavirenz/emtricitabine/tenofovir)
 * Avalide (irbesartan-hydrochlorothiazide)
 * Avapro (irbesartan)
 * Baraclude (entecavir)
 * Coumadin (warfarin)
 * Erbitux (cetuximab)
 * Ixempra (ixabepilone)
 * Mucomyst (Acetylcysteine)
 * Nulojix (belatacept)
 * Onglyza (saxagliptin)
 * Orencia (abatacept)
 * Plavix (clopidogrel)
 * Reyataz (atazanavir)
 * Sprycel (dasatinib)
 * Sustiva (efavirenz)
 * Yervoy (ipilimumab)

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.

Sprycel
A competitor product to Sprycel is the Novartis product Tasigna. In January 2012, Tasigna was approved by NICE for addition to the United Kingdom health service's formulary as a first-line treatment for chronic myelogenous leukemia; Sprycel had been under consideration for this indication as well, but was rejected by NICE for formulary inclusion.

Products under development
The following is a selective list of investigational products under development:


 * Apixaban
 * Necitumumab
 * Brivanib
 * XL184 In June 2010, BMS returned the rights to develop & market XL184 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 to 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.

According to an FTC consent order filed in 2003, 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.

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.

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.