BMS

Bristol-Myers Squibb's James Cornelius - CEO Pay

Tracy Staton — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:53:27 -0400

James Cornelius - Bristol-Myers Squibb

Total Compensation: $11.3

2007 Revenue: $19.3B
2006 Revenue: $17.9B
Change: 7.8%

Details: Cornelius' base salary in 2007 was $1.4 million, up from $380,000 the year before. He also landed a $1.1 million bonus, $2.2 million in incentive pay, plus various perks such as jet travel, including $205,000 for an eight-month housing allowance. Most of his compensation came in the form of stock awards, which were worth about $8.4 million.

BMS News:
BMS: Buyer or buyout target?
BMS chief nabs $10 million raise
Cornelius get big payday for BMS temp job
Bristol CEO: Job cuts, shutdowns continue

BMS: Buyer or buyout target?

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

Market-watchers love to speculate. Their latest topic? Bristol-Myers Squibb, which has been paring away its "non-core" businesses over the last few months. Most recently, Bristol agreed to sell off its ConvaTec wound-care unit for $4.1 billion. Now, it's planning to spin off 10 percent to 20 percent of its Mead Johnson baby formula business in an IPO--a deal that could fetch up to $9.1 billion.

Why the sell-offs? One train of thought: BMS is primping for a suitor. By slenderizing, it's making itself more attractive to a bigger drugmaker--say Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novartis, or Sanofi-Aventis.

Another train of thought: Bristol could be gathering up cash for a war chest of its own. That would allow BMS to snap up smaller drug companies to shore up its product portfolio.

- check out the item at Seeking Alpha
- see the skinny at Blogging Stocks
- read Jim Cramer's prognostications at The Street

BMS swallows Canada's Erbitux price

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Call it a new pricing strategy. Bristol-Myers Squibb is preparing to launch the cancer treatment Erbitux in Canada after a two-year wrangle over cost. Approved by Health Canada in September 2005, Erbitux never went on sale because Bristol-Myers and the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board couldn't agree. Now, the drugmaker has acceded to the price the board set. "We think [the price] did not recognize the value of innovation that Erbitux represents," BMS's Marc Osborne said, "but with the overall survival data, we decided it's time to market this drug."

Next, the government has to check out the drug's manufacturing process, and once that's approved, the provinces will decide whether to cover Erbitux. Ontario looks like a safe bet: It currently sends patients to the U.S. for treatment.

- read the story from CBC

As former exec indicted, BMS posts growth

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

A triad of Bristol-Myers Squibb news today, some good, some not-so-good. First, let's get the earnings out of the way: The company reported a decline in earnings on restructuring charges, but adjusted results beat Wall Street forecasts; Bristol-Myers also managed to boost sales by 20 percent--yes, 20 percent--to $5.18 billion. Whither those restructuring charges? You'll recall that BMS announced 4,300 job cuts and a plethora of plant closures, measures designed to save $1.5 billion annually by 2010.

Meanwhile, a former Bristol-Myers senior VP has been indicted for misleading the government about a deal to keep generic Plavix off the market. According to the indictment, Andrew Bodnar told regulators that Bristol hadn't cut a deal with Apotex when he himself had negotiated it. Bodnar's indictment is just the latest bit of fallout from the 2006 deal; BMS already kicked out its CEO and pleaded guilty to federal charges, paying a $1 million fine.

And in the U.K., Bristol-Myers got the thumbs-down from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence on its rheumatoid arthritis treatment Orencia. NICE says it's not cost-effective and so it shouldn't be paid for by the National Health Service.

- get the earnings news in the Houston Chronicle
- see the indictment story at the WSJ Health Blog
- find out more on the indictment from Pharmalot
- check out the NICE brief at CNN Money

BMS, Repligen settle Orencia fight

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

Four companies, two disputed patents, two multimillion-dollar settlements.

Repligen and Bristol-Myers Squibb buried the hatchet over Orencia, the rheumatoid arthritis treatment that's been subject to a patent dispute between the two companies. Bristol-Myers will pay $5 million plus royalties on U.S. net sales of Orencia to settle the disagreement. Repligen expects its first years' receipts from BMS to be around $30 million.

Meanwhile, Depomed will get about $10 million in payments and royalties in settlement of a patent infringement case against Ivax Corp. and its parent company, Teva Pharmaceuticals. The drug in question was the diabetes treatment Glucophage XR.

- check out the Orencia agreement
- see the Depomed news in the San Jose Business Journal

Related Articles:
NICE snubs Orencia, picks 3 rivals. Report
Regulatory panel gives BMS' Orencia unanimous approval. Report

Courts more open to patent-busting

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

Patents aren't just an issue in Thailand, either. These days, drugmakers are having a more difficult time keeping patent protection on their products, the Financial Times notes. Ever since top U.S. courts said last spring that "obviousness" could derail a patent, some of pharma's protections have been in peril. Particularly, of course, those patents on meds that are just tweaked-up versions of existing drugs, such as extended-release formulations. Last week, a trial court nullified Bayer's patent on its Yasmin contraceptive for obviousness.

Lehman Bros. estimates that a quarter of 2008 pharma revenue will be at risk from generics by 2012, the Times reports. An additional 9 percent would be if drugmakers lose a lot of lawsuits. There's some hope, though; you'll recall that just yesterday generics maker Teva lost its bid to flatten Pfizer's patents on the painkiller Celebrex.

- read the story in the FT

Related Articles:
Officials toss Genentech antibody patent. Report
Patent ruling threatens $300M in Genentech revenue. Report
BMS is lead player in patent-approval race. Report

Stopping Plavix may boost heart risks

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:59:57 -0500

Patients had better be careful when they stop taking the anticlotting drug Plavix. A new study shows that those treated with Plavix for a heart attack or angina had a "rebound effect" risk of heart attack or death. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the research found that the rate of those adverse events nearly doubled during the 90 days after patients stopped Plavix.

But this doesn't mean docs should toss aside the drug. The researchers said that the rebound might be managed by weaning patients gradually from the drug or by adding aspirin as dosage is reduced. Or, they suggested, patients might avoid the problems by continuing to take Plavix indefinitely.

The latter suggestion could be good news for manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb and marketer Sanofi-Aventis, at least till the drug's patent expires in 2011 or generic versions make it to market, whichever comes first. BMS has been fighting off various generic challenges--and briefly lost, as Apotex launched a copycat Plavix in late 2006. Plavix sales were up substantially in 2007, helping fuel 65 percent growth in BMS' pharma revenues.

- see the study abstract
- check out the article in the Wall Street Journal
- read BMS' earnings release

Related Articles:
Bristol profits leap on Plavix sales. Report
Generic Plavix grabs big market share. Report
Injunction issued against generic Plavix. Report

Pharma feeds contract manufacturing

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:59:56 -0500

Big Pharma announced thousands of layoffs in 2007. Companies have already started passing out pink slips. But a flurry is still to come as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and others push forward with their restructuring plans. Look for hundreds of millions in charges against earnings as these companies lower the ax. BMS has said it expects $1.3 billion in costs associated with its restructuring, for instance.

As staff goes out the doors carrying boxes of their personal effects, entire plants are being shuttered or sold off. Does that mean drug makers won't be making drugs anymore? Well, they won't make all their meds themselves. In a word, outsourcing. AstraZeneca plans to farm out a big chunk of its manufacturing--perhaps all of it--within 10 years. Pfizer aims to double its contract manufacturing to 30 percent from 15 percent.

So pharma will definitely be a slimmer sort of business by year's end. Will it be meaner as well as leaner? We'll see.

- see our special report on the top layoffs of 2007
- here's more on BMS's leaner future in the Star-Ledger
- take a look at this report on AstraZeneca's outsourcing plans
- read the article on Pfizer's intent to move drugmaking to Asia

Related Articles:
AstraZeneca to outsource manufacturing. Report
Pfizer plots big outsourcing push. Report
Chinese outsourcing poses new risks. Report

BMS offloads imaging unit for $525M

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:59:54 -0500

Bristol-Myers Squibb said it was going to retrench, and so it is. The company announced this morning that it would sell its medical imaging unit to the private equity firm Avista Capital Partners for about $525 million. BMS says it wants to focus more narrowly on biopharma, which doesn't include medical imaging. Plus, the unit's biggest product, Cardiolite, faces generic competition after its key patent expires next year.

The sale is part of a company-wide restructuring that includes 4,300 layoffs; BMS hopes to save $1.5 billion a year from cuts in jobs and manufacturing.

- take a look a this release from BMS
- read this article for more

Related Articles:
BMS cuts 4,800 jobs. Report
BMS starts laying off workers. Report
BMS to unveil (big?) layoffs. Report
Bristol CEO: Job cuts, shutdowns continue. Report

BMS starts laying off workers

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:59:54 -0500

The ax is starting to fall at Bristol-Myers Squibb. The company has started notifying employees that they'll soon be out of a job. Details on how many jobs will be cut and which areas will feel the most pain are expected next Wednesday during Bristol's conference call with analysts.

Laid-off workers will get severance, plus help finding new jobs. Many of them are probably already looking, considering the fact that CEO James Cornelius (photo) has been talking layoffs since July. The conference call will be webcast for the public, in case anyone wants to hear the news firsthand.

- see the release about the webcast from BMS
- read the Post-Standard report

Related Articles:
BMS to unveil layoffs, manufacturing cuts. Report
Cornelius get big payday for BMS temp job. Report
Better times ahead for BMS? Report