A continuation of our maiden voyage of the Pharmcast, we talk with a trio of former Bristol-Myers Squibb executives, who developed and delivered BMS’ “String of Pearls” strategy, that delivered first-class medicines to patients and positioned BMS as a clear leader in the immuno-oncology space.
In part 2 of the roundtable, we start off with John Celentano, who was responsible for delivering a large organizational transformation to fund reinvestment in their innovation pipeline.
With the "string of pearls" strategy in place, it was time to figure out how BMS was going to pay for their acquisitions, and continue to fund the development of new products.
Knowing they needed to fundamentally change how they ran the business, the BMS board set out with something they referred to as "the productivity transformative initiaitive."
After restructuring the way the company ran, by shrinking the company and increasing productivity, the board members of BMS set their sites on investing in innovative products and technologies - primarily biologics. At the time, only about 6-7% of major drus were biologics. But, the BMS executives estimated that in the future, the biologic market would near 25%.
In what was, at the time, a make-or-break decision, the BMS executives made a leap-of-faith, $2.3 billion acquisition of a small company called "Medarex," a company that focused on immuno-oncology medicines.
Despite originally being heavily criticized by leaders in the oncology field for the alliance, BMS was well on their way to becoming a leader in the immuno-oncology space.