COVID-19 brought unprecedented and unimaginable challenges to the world during 2020. While patients, caregivers, our workforce and the healthcare community have all faced unique challenges during the crisis, Bristol Myers Squibb has remained steadfast in our commitment to those who rely on us.
Since we first learned about the outbreak, we have taken swift and decisive action to protect our workforce, ensure the continuous supply of our medicines, support relief efforts around the world as well as enable and engage in research for effective treatments.
Through it all, our Corporate Emergency Response Team (CERT) has managed the complex and rapidly evolving situation through an unrelenting focus on protecting the health, safety and well-being of our employees and ensuring the continued supply of medicines for our patients. This was all done in accordance with recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, as well as local governments.
During the pandemic, our role as a biopharmaceutical leader and a responsible global citizen has never been clearer: to promote public health and carry out our mission of providing life-saving medicines to the patients who depend on us.
We responded to the COVID-19 pandemic through a number of actions and we continue to evolve our approach as the pandemic continues.
Patients
Our priority during COVID-19 has been to ensure that our patients continue to receive the medicines they depend on.
- Our clinical and commercial supply teams were proactive from the beginning of the pandemic and found alternative means to move our raw materials and products to our markets and clinical sites.
- As more patients faced financial challenges due to COVID-19, we expanded our existing patient support programs to help eligible unemployed patients in the U.S. who lost their health insurance by offering access to our medicines for free.
- We implemented overarching principles to guide our clinical trial investigators on the conduct of our trials worldwide, to protect participants and personnel at our clinical trial sites, while ensuring regulatory compliance and the integrity of our science.
Our Workforce
We firmly believe that our greatest asset is our people. Our colleagues, working remotely and onsite, and facing their own personal challenges, have continued to act with a sense of purpose, dedication and urgency to meet the needs of our patients.
- From the onset of the pandemic, Bristol Myers Squibb has made the health, well-being and safety of our workforce a priority.
- In March 2020, our sites across the globe moved to remote work. At the same time, we worked with the highest precautions to keep our essential workers onsite so that we could ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our patients.
- We have taken a careful approach to return colleagues to our sites based on the local conditions, government and health authority guidance and our company guidance.
- As the pandemic continues, we are addressing individual needs and providing flexibility to protect the most vulnerable members of our workforce and support those who continue to work remotely.
Community
The need for strong support for patients, healthcare providers and our communities has never been greater than during this global pandemic.
- Bristol Myers Squibb, together with the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, has contributed more than $31 million in financial support and much needed products, including personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves to relief efforts in 45 countries.
- We have engaged with more than 250 patient and professional organizations to support research, education and a broad range of efforts to benefit patients in need.
- In partnership with GRYT Health, we launched the COVID Advocacy Exchange, a virtual platform that brings together a range of stakeholders – patient advocacy organizations, patients, policymakers, healthcare practitioners and industry members – to support the crucial exchange of information and to provide a forum for live, interactive sessions that encourage discussion and collaboration. More than 25,000 people engaged in the COVID Advocacy Exchange during 2020.
In Support of Science
In keeping with our vision to transform patients’ lives through science, we have supported global and industry-wide efforts to accelerate the development of effective diagnostics, vaccines and treatments for COVID-19.
- We are now one of 15 companies participating in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator. As part of the effort, we have identified more than 1,000 proprietary compounds and made them available to collaborators to screen for possible molecules to treat COVID-19.
- We organized and are leading the COVID-19 Testing Industry Consortium that includes 18 other healthcare companies seeking to inform, improve, innovate and accelerate aspects of COVID-19 testing, from research to clinical diagnostic applications.
- We have evaluated compounds in our portfolio for potential impact on the inflammatory response of some patients to COVID-19, for possible inclusion in near-term clinical trials; the research is advancing with a sense of urgency.
- We are part of the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) initiative, a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Foundation for NIH as well as other industry, public health and not-for-profit organizations. This initiative aims to develop a national strategy for a coordinated COVID-19 research response.