Bristol Myers Squibb

Squibb

The Squibb corporation was founded in 1858 by Edward Robinson Squibb in Brooklyn, New York. Squibb was known as a vigorous advocate of quality control and high purity standards within the fledgling pharmaceutical industry of his time, at one point self-publishing an alternative to the U.S. Pharmacopeia (Squibb's Ephemeris of Materia Medica) after failing to convince the American Medical Association to incorporate higher purity standards. Mentions of the Materia Medica, Squibb products, and Edward Squibb's opinion on the utility and best method of preparation for various medicants are found in many medical papers of the late 1800s. Squibb Corporation served as a major supplier of medical goods to the Union Army during the American Civil War, providing portable medical kits containing morphine, surgical anesthetics, and quinine for the treatment of malaria (which was endemic in most of the eastern United States at that time).

Bristol-Myers

In 1887, Hamilton College graduates William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers purchased the Clinton Pharmaceutical company of Clinton, New York. In 1898, they decided to rename it Bristol, Myers and Company. Following Myers' death in 1899, Bristol changed the name to the Bristol-Myers Corporation. The first nationally recognized product was Sal Hepatica, a laxative mineral salt in 1903. Its second national success was Ipana toothpaste, from 1901 through the 1960s.

In 1943, Bristol-Myers acquired Cheplin Biological Laboratories, a producer of acidophilus milk in East Syracuse, New York, and converted the plant to produce penicillin for the World War II Allied forces. After the war, the company renamed the plant Bristol Laboratories in 1945 and entered the civilian antibiotics market, where it faced competition from Squibb, which had opened the world's largest penicillin plant in 1944 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Penicillin production at the East Syracuse plant was ended in 2005, when it became less expensive to produce overseas, but the facility continues to be used for the manufacturing process development and production of other biologic medicines for clinical trials and commercial use.

Merger

Bristol-Myers and Squibb were merged to form Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1989.

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."

2000 to 2010

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" as 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. In 2002, the company was involved in a lawsuit of maintaining illegally a monopoly on Taxol, its cancer treatment, and it was again sued for the antitrust lawsuit 5 years later, which cost the company $125 million for settlement. On October 24, 2002, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. restated earnings downward for parts of 2000 and 2001 while revising this year's earnings upward because of its massive inventory backlog imbroglio that spurred two government investigations. On March 15, 2004, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. adjusted upward its fourth-quarter and full-year 2003 results after reversing an earlier decision about how to deal with accounting errors made in prior years. 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 on 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. In 2009, 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 August, BMS acquired the biotechnology firm Medarex as part of the company's "String of Pearls" strategy of alliances, partnerships and acquisitions. In November, 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 was expected to further sharpen the company's focus on biopharmaceuticals. 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 United States corporations. Also, BMS was included in the 2009 Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index of leading sustainability-driven companies. In October 2010, the company acquired ZymoGenetics, securing an existing product as well as pipeline assets in hepatitis C, cancer and other therapeutic areas. Lamberto Andreotti was named CEO this year; he had previously served as "president and COO responsible for all pharmaceutical operations worldwide."

2011 onward

Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to pay around $2.5 billion in cash to buy Inhibitex Inc. in attempt 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. On June 29, Bristol-Myers Squibb extended its portfolio of diabetes treatments when it agreed to buy Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc for around $5.3 billion in cash and will pay $1.7 billion to Eli Lilly to cover Amylin's debt and its obligations to Eli Lilly from ending the collaboration with Amylin. Astra Zeneca, who already collaborates on several diabetes treatments with BMS, will pay $3.4 billion in cash for the rights to develop Amylin's products.

Citing major developments and a market capitalization of US$87 billion and stock appreciation of 61.4%, Bristol-Myers Squibb was ranked as the best drug company of 2013 by Forbes Magazine.

In April 2014, BMS announced its acquisition of iPierian for up to $725 million. In December the company received FDA approval for the use of the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) in treating patients whose skin cancer cannot be removed or have not responded to previous drug therapies. In February 2015, the company acquired Flexus Biosciences for $1.25 billion as well as initiating a research partnership with Rigel Pharmaceuticals which could generate more than $339 million. As part of the deal with Flexus, BMS will gain full rights to Flexus' lead small molecule IDO1-inhibitor, F001287. In March, the company obtained an exclusive opportunity to both licence and commercialise PROSTVAC, Bavarian Nordic's phase III prostate specific antigen targeting cancer immunotherapy. Bavarian Nordic will receive an upfront payment of $60 million as well as incremental payments up to $230 million, if the overall survival of test patients exceeds that seen in Phase II tests. Bavarian could also receive milestone payments of between $110 million and $495 million, dependent on regulatory authorization, and these payments have the potential to total up to $975 million.

In May 2015, Dr. Giovanni Caforio became CEO of the company; Caforio was formerly the company's COO and succeeded Andreotti upon his retirement. Andreotti subsequently succeeded James Cornelius as executive chairman upon his retirement. In November, the company acquired the cardiovascular disease drug developer Cardioxyl for up to $2.075 billion. The deal strengthens the BMS' critical pipelines with the phase II candidate for acute decompensated heart failure, CXL-1427.

In March 2016, the company announced it would acquire Padlock Therapeutics for up to $600 million. In early July, the company announced it would acquire Cormorant Pharmaceuticals for $520 million, boosting BMS' onclogy offering through Cormorants monoclonal antibody targeted against interleukin-8.

In late February 2017, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune - among others - reported that activist investor, Carl Icahn, had taken a stake in the company, signalling a potential future takeover from the likes of Gilead Sciences.

Acquisition history

The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):

Pharmaceuticals

The following is a list of key pharmaceutical products:

Out of production

Divested brands

(Former Bristol-Myers brands, now divested)

Products under development

The following is a selective list of investigational products under development, as of 2015: