Bristol Myers Squibb

• 1. Introduction

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  Bristol Myers Squibb is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, ranked 94th on the Fortune 500. Almost a third of its 2025 revenue came from one drug alone: apixaban, sold under the name Eliquis, prescribed to people with atrial fibrillation. Nearly seven out of every ten dollars the company earned that year came from patients inside the United States. A single company built from two centuries-old rivals now leans this heavily on one pill and one market. How did two separate firms, founded decades apart, end up merged under one name? What did that combined company have to survive, and what has it kept buying to stay ahead?

• 2. Two Founders, One Company

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  Edward Robinson Squibb founded his corporation in Brooklyn, New York, in 1858. He built a reputation as an advocate for quality control and high purity standards inside a young pharmaceutical industry. When the American Medical Association would not adopt his standards, Squibb self published an alternative. He titled it Squibb's Ephemeris of Materia Medica, modeled after the U.S. Pharmacopeia. The American Journal of Pharmacy alone published more than one hundred of his papers on the subject. His sons sold the company in 1905 to Lowell M. Palmer and Theodore Weicker, who incorporated it. Around that time, the company adopted the Squibb logo, built to signal uniformity, purity, efficacy, and reliability based on research.

  Three decades later, in Clinton, New York, two Hamilton College graduates were making their own start. William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers purchased the Clinton Pharmaceutical company in 1887. In May 1898 they renamed it Bristol, Myers and Company. Myers died the following year, and Bristol renamed it again, to the Bristol-Myers Corporation. During the 1890s the company introduced Sal Hepatica, a laxative mineral salt, and followed it with Ipana toothpaste in 1901. Its later divisions included Clairol for hair care and Drackett, maker of household products such as Windex and Drano.

  The two companies stayed separate rivals for more than a century before Bristol-Myers and Squibb merged in 1989, forming Bristol-Myers Squibb.

• 3. Purity And Penicillin

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  During the American Civil War, Squibb Corporation supplied the Union Army with portable medical kits containing morphine, surgical anesthetics, and quinine. Quinine treated malaria, a disease then endemic across most of the Eastern United States.

  In 1944, Squibb opened the world's largest penicillin plant in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Bristol-Myers had already moved into the same field a year earlier. In 1943, it acquired Cheplin Biological Laboratories, a producer of acidophilus milk in East Syracuse, New York. It converted the plant to make penicillin for the Allied forces of World War II. After the war, the company renamed the site Bristol Laboratories in 1945 and entered the civilian antibiotics market, competing directly with Squibb.

  Penicillin production at the East Syracuse plant ended in 2005, once making it overseas became cheaper. By 2010, the facility instead developed and produced other biologic medicines for clinical trials and commercial use.

• 4. A Medal And A Raid

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  In 1999, then President Bill Clinton awarded Bristol-Myers Squibb the National Medal of Technology, the country's highest recognition for technological achievement. The citation praised the company for work 'extending, and enhancing human life through innovative pharmaceutical research and development.'

  Seven years later, in July 2006, FBI agents raided the company's corporate offices on charges of collusion centered on its distribution of Plavix. On the 12th of September 2006, the monitor Frederick B. Lacey, a former federal judge, urged the company to remove then chief executive Peter Dolan over the matter. Bristol Myers Squibb announced that same day that Dolan would step down. The deferred prosecution agreement expired in June 2007, and the Department of Justice took no further action against the company on matters it covered.

  By the time Jim Cornelius's tenure as chief executive ended in May 2010, every executive still tied to the company's earlier scandals had left.

• 5. Rebuilding The Business

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  In 2009, Bristol-Myers Squibb began a major restructuring centered on its pharmaceutical and biologic products. The plan brought productivity initiatives, cost cutting, and a multiyear program of ongoing layoffs. It carried out a strategy launched in 2007 to shift the company from a large, diversified pharmaceutical business into a specialty biopharma company. That shift included closing half of its manufacturing facilities. As another cost-cutting step, the company reduced health-care subsidies for retirees and planned to freeze their pension plan at the end of 2009.

  Lamberto Andreotti became chief executive in 2010, after previously serving as president and chief operating officer. That same year, Lou Schmukler joined the company as president of global product development and design. Schmukler led the team that finished the strategic transformation the company had begun in 2007. By 2011, Bristol-Myers Squibb had a dozen manufacturing facilities and six product development sites.

  Forbes magazine ranked the company the best drug company of 2013. In December 2014, it won FDA approval for nivolumab, sold as Opdivo. The approval covered patients whose skin cancer could not be removed or had not responded to earlier therapy. In February 2015, the company began a research partnership with Rigel Pharmaceuticals that could generate more than $339 million. The following month, it secured an exclusive license to develop and sell PROSTVAC, a phase III prostate cancer immunotherapy from Bavarian Nordic. Bavarian Nordic stood to receive an upfront payment of $60 million. Incremental payments could add up to $230 million if overall survival beat Phase II results. Regulatory milestones could bring $110 million to $495 million more, for a potential total of $975 million.

  Giovanni Caforio became chief executive in May 2015, moving up from chief operating officer. Andreotti retired and went on to succeed James Cornelius as Executive Chairman. Caforio would spend much of the next decade signing off on a fast-expanding string of acquisitions.

• 6. The Acquisition Machine

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  In August 2009, during that same restructuring, Bristol Myers Squibb acquired the biotechnology firm Medarex. The deal was part of a strategy the company called 'String of Pearls,' a series of alliances, partnerships, and acquisitions. Three months later, it split off Mead Johnson Nutrition, letting shareholders trade their stock for shares in the newly separate company. The company said the move would sharpen its focus on biopharmaceuticals. In October 2010, it acquired ZymoGenetics, gaining an existing product along with pipeline assets in hepatitis C, cancer, and other disease areas.

  Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to pay around $2.5 billion in cash for Inhibitex Inc, chasing hepatitis C treatments against rivals Gilead and Pharmasset. Inhibitex shareholders received a 126% premium over the stock's average price in the 20 trading days ending the 6th of January. On the 29th of June, the company also agreed to buy Amylin Pharmaceuticals in a cash deal. It also took on payments to Eli Lilly to cover Amylin's debt and collaboration obligations. AstraZeneca, already a partner with BMS on several diabetes treatments, paid $3.4 billion in cash for the rights to keep developing Amylin's products. Two years later, the company divested Amylin to AstraZeneca.

  In April 2014, Bristol Myers Squibb announced it would acquire iPierian for up to $725 million. The next February, it bought Flexus Biosciences for $1.25 billion, gaining full rights to Flexus' lead drug candidate, the small molecule IDO1 inhibitor F001287. That November, the company acquired Cardioxyl for up to $2.075 billion, adding the phase II heart failure candidate CXL-1427 to its pipeline. In March 2016, it announced the acquisition of Padlock Therapeutics for up to $600 million. In early July, it added Cormorant Pharmaceuticals for $520 million, boosting its oncology work through an antibody targeting interleukin-8. In August 2017, the company acquired IFM Therapeutics for $300 million upfront, with contingency payments of up to $1.01 billion. The deal aimed to help it compete against Merck's cancer drug Keytruda.

  In November 2019, Bristol Myers Squibb acquired Celgene for $74 billion, or $95 billion including debt. To win regulatory approval, Amgen bought Celgene's drug Otezla for $13.4 billion. The deal was meant to refresh the company's pipeline as Opdivo's sales slipped against Merck's rival drug Keytruda. Investors Wellington Management Company and Starboard Value opposed the merger, but 75% of shareholders voted to approve it. That same year, in July, Bristol Myers Squibb sold its consumer health business, UPSA, to Taisho Pharmaceutical. UPSA had focused on France and the rest of Europe. The company had already divested its individual consumer products, along with its US and Canada consumer business, as early as 2005.

  In February 2020, Bristol Myers Squibb and partner Biomotiv launched a new company, Anteros Pharmaceuticals, focused on inflammation and fibrosis medicines. That August, it announced it would acquire Forbius and its TGF-beta 1 and TGF-beta 3 inhibitors. In October, the company said it would acquire the cardiology firm MyoKardia for $13.1 billion, or $225 a share. The deal brought the heart drug mavacamten, along with two development-stage treatments, danicamtiv and MYK-224. In August 2022, it acquired Turning Point Therapeutics for $4.1 billion in cash, strengthening its cancer drug lineup with repotrectinib. That same month, the company said it would invest $180 million in the French AI company Owkin. The goal was to help design more precise clinical trials, starting with cardiovascular disease. In August 2023, Bristol Myers Squibb partnered with Cellares on robotic production of CAR-T treatments, of which it has two approved. The following month, it agreed to pay Zenas BioPharma $50 million upfront for rights to obexelimab, an antibody treatment for autoimmune disease.

  In January 2024, Bristol Myers Squibb acquired Mirati Therapeutics, a cancer therapy developer, for $4.8 billion plus up to $1 billion more in milestone payments. The following month, it acquired RayzeBio for approximately $4.1 billion. In March, it acquired Karuna Therapeutics for $14 billion, gaining the lead candidate KarXT. KarXT combines xanomeline and trospium and was developed for schizophrenia in adults. In September 2024, the FDA approved the resulting drug, Cobenfy, calling it the first novel type of treatment for schizophrenia in 70 years.

  The most recent name on that list, added in 2025, is Orbital Therapeutics. Not every deal in the company's history closed without a fight in court.

• 7. Courtrooms And Consequences

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  In 2002-29 states sued Bristol Myers Squibb for illegally maintaining a monopoly on its cancer treatment Taxol. A separate suit accused the company of trying to keep a generic version of BuSpar off the market. The company paid $125 million to settle the Taxol case and $670 million in total across both cases.

  That same year, an accounting scandal forced Bristol Myers Squibb to restate its revenues from 1999 through 2001. The restatement stemmed from improper booking tied to 'channel stuffing,' the practice of pushing excess inventory onto customers to inflate sales figures. The company settled with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission for $150 million. In 2004, it restated its financial results for the previous five years. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, a monitor appointed by the US attorney in New Jersey oversaw the company. The former head of its pharmaceutical group, Richard Lane, and its former chief financial officer, Fred Schiff, were indicted for federal securities violations.

  Bristol Myers Squibb was also named as a defendant in a $1 billion lawsuit over the Guatemala syphilis experiments, which infected hundreds of Guatemalans with the disease. In 2022, the company was dismissed from that case, though the reason for the dismissal was never made public.

• 8. Today's Portfolio

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  Five other medicines each account for a meaningful share of Bristol Myers Squibb's 2025 revenue alongside Eliquis. Nivolumab, sold as Opdivo, treats certain cancers and brought in 21% of that revenue. Abatacept, sold as Orencia, treats autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and made up 8%. Lenalidomide, sold as Revlimid, treats multiple myeloma, smoldering myeloma, and myelodysplastic syndromes, contributing 6%. Pomalidomide, sold as Pomalyst or Imnovid, treats multiple myeloma and AIDS-related Kaposi sarcoma, also at 6%. Ipilimumab, sold as Yervoy, treats cancer and likewise made up 6% of revenue.

  Luspatercept, sold as Reblozyl, treats anemia linked to beta thalassemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, and accounted for 5% of 2025 revenue. Research and development for these drugs runs out of sites in Lawrence, Summit, and New Brunswick, New Jersey; Redwood City, California; and Seville, Spain. Additional sites operate in Devens and Cambridge, Massachusetts; Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium; Tokyo; Hyderabad and Bangalore, India; and Wirral in the United Kingdom. The company also ranks 173rd on the Forbes Global 2000.

  Bristol Myers Squibb also funds outside research and health institutions, including the Institute for Advanced Study, SickKids, and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, among others named in its public disclosures. It lobbies through trade groups such as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and BIOTECanada.

  On the 28th of August 2023, Reblozyl won an FDA label expansion. It became a first-line option for anemia in adults with low- to intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndromes who need regular blood transfusions. That decision, backed by data from the Phase III COMMANDS study, showed Reblozyl outperforming older anemia treatments called erythropoiesis-stimulating agents. Bristol Myers Squibb is now aiming for the drug to reach $4 billion in sales by 2030.