The Business of Breakthroughs
Our focus on unmet needs in cancer, blood diseases, autoimmune and heart diseases comes during a remarkable time when unprecedented scientific discoveries are advancing new treatments as never before in human history.
We are advancing our rich mid- to late-stage pipeline across therapeutic areas including assets like Factor XIa inhibitor for thrombosis, cendakimab for eosinophilic esophagitis and CELMoDs for multiple myeloma.
Our Research & Early Development teams are building a robust early pipeline across multiple platforms with more than 50 early-stage assets. We expect more than 20 experimental assets to progress through proof of concept in the next three years.
At the same time, we continue to build a broad network of biopharma partners to source external innovation. Last year, this included exciting collaborations with DragonFly, insitro, Repare and many more.
COVID-19 Pandemic Response
2020 was like no other year. With COVID-19 quickly affecting the world, we focused on ensuring the safety and well-being of our workforce, ensuring the continued supply of medicines to our patients and driving relief efforts across the globe. We expanded our existing patient support programs to help eligible patients in the U.S. who lost their health insurance due to the pandemic.
Our COVID-19 response and recovery efforts are based on our key priorities to maintain the supply of medicines to patients, protect the health and safety of our workforce, advance our pipeline and assist relief efforts across the globe. Our teams worked with urgency to take all necessary actions to promote public health and continued to carry out our mission of providing life-saving medicines to the patients who depend on us.
Living Our Values
The pivot to remote working for the majority of our workforce was enabled by our supportive culture built on our core values of passion, innovation, urgency, accountability, inclusion and integrity. We benefit from the diversity of our colleagues and strive to foster an environment that is equitable and inclusive. At our core is the belief that the priceless ingredient of every product is the integrity of its maker.
The global pandemic and social unrest of 2020 have brought us to a critical inflection point–and businesses who act with purpose will have impact beyond this moment and create lasting change. As the events of 2020 unfolded, our company and the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation took bold steps to accelerate and expand health equity and diversity and inclusion efforts.
The commitments are aimed at accelerating clinical trial diversity, improving disease awareness in underserved communities, investing in diverse communities and increasing the diversity of the company’s workforce.
We then went one step further in December, announcing strengthened environmental sustainability goals through 2040 that build upon those initial commitments. The company has committed to purchase 100 percent of the electricity it uses from renewable sources by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2040 with targets of equitable water use, zero waste to landfill and 100 percent electric vehicles in our fleet.
Positioned for the Future
Our accomplishments in 2020 reflect our continued progress towards our vision of transforming patients’ lives through science. With strong development and commercial capabilities and a deep and broad pipeline, we are well positioned for growth and the renewal of our portfolio through the end of the decade.
We have the most talented people in the industry who show up for work every day dedicated to our mission of discovering, developing and delivering innovative medicines to help patients prevail over serious diseases. I am proud of how our teams have collaborated during the pandemic in a virtual environment, building a sense of belonging and connection. We stand ready to bring our workforce back together–at the appropriate time and with the appropriate precautions.
The BMS community feels great pride and celebrates each time we see a patient benefit from one of our medicines. But we know how many patients are still waiting for options–this is what motivates us and keeps us focused on the search for the next innovation.
Thank you.
Giovanni Caforio, M.D.
Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer
March 10, 2021