Bristol-Myers Squibb
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| Bristol-Myers Squibb Company | |
| Type | Public(NYSE: BMY) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1887 |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, USA |
| Key people | James Cornelius, interim CEO |
| Industry | Pharmaceutical |
| Website | www.bms.com |
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), colloquially referred to as BMS, is a pharmaceutical corporation, formed by a 1989 merger between pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Company, founded in 1887 by William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers in Clinton, NY (both were graduates of Hamilton College), and Squibb Corporation. The New York City-based company's Chairman and CEO was most recently Peter R. Dolan. Dolan was fired in September 2006 for his handling of a patent dispute over the drug Plavix, and was replaced with interim CEO James Cornelius until a new CEO is found. BMS' primary R&D sites are located in New Jersey and Connecticut, with other sites around the US, in Ireland and in other countries.
BMS is on the Fortune 500 list and is one of the Top 10 companies for working mothers according to Working Mother Media.
Contents |
[edit] Products
Bristol-Myers Squibb manufactures prescription pharmaceuticals, Over-the-Counter drugs and health care products in several therapeutic areas. It is also the parent company of Mead Johnson which manufactures nutritional products such as Enfamil baby formulas and infant vitamin supplements like Tri-Vi-Sol.
[edit] Spokesman
Lance Armstrong has appeared in several of the company's marketing campaigns, as a survivor of testicular cancer that was treated with BMS medication.
[edit] Pharmaceuticals
The following is a list of key pharmaceutical products as found on the Bristol-Myers Squibb "At A Glance" information page, retrieved 2006-09-28. The terms used below are all registered trademarks of the company.
- Abilify® (aripiprazole)
- ATRIPLA™ (efavirenz 600 mg/ emtricitabine 200 mg/ tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300 mg) Tablets
- Avapro® (irbesartan)
- Baraclude® (entecavir)
- Cardiolite® (kit for the preparation of Technetium Tc99m Sestamibi for injection)
- ConvaTec Ostomy Care
- ConvaTec Wound Therapeutics
- EMSAM® (selegiline transdermal system)
- Enfamil® (infant formula)
- Erbitux® (cetuximab)
- Orencia® (abatacept)
- Plavix® (clopidogrel bisulfate)
- Pravachol® (pravastatin sodium) Tablets
- Reyataz® (atazanavir sulfate)
- SPRYCEL® (dasatinib) Tablets
- Sustiva® (efavirenz)
- TAXOL® (paclitaxel) Injection
- Videx® EC (didanosine, delayed-release capsules)
- Zerit® (stavudine)
[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.
[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 in order to reflect higher sales numbers. The company has since settled with the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission related to this scandal, agreeing to pay $150 million but neither admitting nor denying guilt.[1]
According to an FTC consent order filed in 2003,[2] 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 in order 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 attornies general to recover monetary damages.
A criminal 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.[3]
On September 12, 2006, a federal monitor urged the company to remove CEO Peter Dolan over the Plavix-dispute. Later that day, BMS announced that Dolan would indeed step down.[4].
[edit] References to a possible acquisition by European companies in the media
An article in The Star-Ledger from February 26th, 2006,[5] claims the company is being looked at for acquisition by European drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Sanofi-Aventis. All three are at least twice as large as BMS. BMS had held merger talks with GlaxoSmithKline back in 2002, but a deal never materialized.
[edit] References
- ^ SEC News Digest, August 9, 2004.
- ^ News Release about Consent Order against Bristol-Myers, March 7, 2003
- ^ Business Report, 31 July 2006. Accessed 7 September 2006
- ^ CNN.com, 12 September 2006. Accessed 12 September 2006
- ^ Bristol may be in Euro-pharma's cross hairs, The Star Ledger, February 26, 2006
