Bristol Products history

Brunel’s Great Western steamship was built in the city harbour and launched in 1837.

Built in Bristol and launched in 1843, this magnificent ship made voyages to New York and Australia and was used as a freight and cargo ship during the Crimean war.

In 1858, a young United States Navy doctor named Edward Robinson Squibb became so dissatisfied with the poor quality of medicines available during the Mexican War that he created his own pharmaceutical laboratory.

Avonmouth Dock opened in 1877.

The original firm, Clinton Pharmaceutical Co., was founded in Clinton, N.Y., in 1887 by William McLaren Bristol, Sr., and John R. Myers.

In 1888, Clinton Pharmaceuticals was redubbed Bristol, Myers.

The firm relocated from Clinton to Syracuse, New York, in 1889 to improve its shipping capability, and then moved again, ten years later, to Brooklyn for easier access to its expanding base of customers in Pennsylvania and New England.

Doctor Squibb did fairly well, passing the business on to his sons in 1891.

In 1908 Avonmouth Docks were extended and the Royal Edward Dock was opened by His Majesty King Edward VII.

The company became a part of Drug, Inc., a large, newly formed holding company, in 1928.

In 1929 Bristol-Myers was absorbed by a giant holding company, Drug Inc., which, however, dissolved during the Great Depression.

Bristol-Myers became a publicly traded company in 1933.

By 1943, Squibb operated the largest penicillin production plant in the world in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

1957: Henry Bristol becomes chair of the board; Fredric N. Schwartz becomes president and chief executive officer.

1959: Bristol-Myers acquires Clairol.

She was eventually rescued and brought back to Bristol in 1970, where she was restored and transformed back into her original state as a 19th Century passenger ship.

In 1972, Gelb was appointed chair and CEO. He initiated a comeback over the next decade by spending $400 million advertising the company's most popular brands, and by expanding its line of health care products.

In 1977, what is now known as the Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Biomedical Research Grants Program was established.

Although none of these products was a breakthrough drug, they contributed over $200 million in sales to the company by 1980.

In 1981, Bristol-Myers settled a series of ten-year-old antitrust suits alleging that Bristol-Myers and Beecham Group, a British pharmaceutical company, had improperly obtained a patent on the antibiotic ampicillin.

1983: The company introduces tamper-resistant packaging for its capsule products.

1984: Bristol-Myers builds a multimillion-dollar research facility in Wallingford, Connecticut.

Three years later the partners formed another venture, Oncogen, to manufacture products for cancer treatment, and in 1985 they offered Bristol-Myers an opportunity to invest in the operation.

In 1986 the firm became enmeshed in the complex acquisition of Genetic Systems Corporation (GSC), a Seattle-based biotechnology company.

In an attempt to establish a stronger position in the field of coronary care, Bristol-Myers negotiated an agreement in March 1987 to acquire SciMed Life Systems, a manufacturer of coro-nary balloon angioplasty catheters and other disposable products for treating cardiovascular disease.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Annual Reports, New York: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., 1988-92.

Bristol-Myers sold GSC to Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical firm, in 1990.

Terence Mordaunt and David Ord privatised the business in 1991 and since then £600 million has been invested to create a modern, thriving business offering the full range of shipping, distribution and logistics services.

In January 1993, Bristol signed a contract with Mead Johnson, establishing a joint venture to produce and sell Enfamil and Enfapro infant formulas in Guangzhou, China.

“Nielsen Signs Agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company,” PR Newswire, Feburary 22, 1994.

At the same time, generic drug makers began working on a non-branded version of Capoten, whose patent is due to expire in 1995.

In 1996, Genzyme Transgenics Corp., working with Bristol-Myers, announced the birth of a genetically altered goat, which carried the gene for an anticancer drug.

Approved in 1997, Plavix (clopidogrel) is an anticoagulant prescribed for people with risk of cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks and strokes.

bristol-myers squibb company home page, 25 june 1998. available at: http://www.bms.com.

The firm projected earnings of $4.06 per share for Bristol-Myers Squibb during fiscal year 1999.

Frazier, Lynne McKenna, “Bristol-Myers Squibb to Sell Warsaw, Indiana-based Orthopedic Implant Firm,” News-Sentinel, September 27, 2000.

Following its sale of the hair-products company Clairol to Procter & Gamble Co., Bristol-Myers acquired the DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company from the DuPont Company in 2001.

In 2004 Bristol-Myers agreed to pay a $150 million fine to settle charges of accounting fraud by the United States Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), though it neither admitted nor denied guilt.

In 2006 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating the company on charges of collusion and deceiving United States antitrust authorities about an agreement to delay the marketing of a generic version of its blood-thinning drug Plavix.

United States Department of Justice. (2007). Bristol-Myers Squibb to pay more than $515 million to resolve allegations of illegal drug marketing and pricing.

Drugwatch.com has provided reliable, trusted information about medications, medical devices and general health since 2008.

In 2010, the FDA added a boxed warning for the anti-blood-clotting medication stating that people who didn’t effectively metabolize the drug don’t effectively convert Plavix to its active form in the liver, giving healthcare providers guidance.

The drug went on to be the top selling drug in the United States, generating $7 billion in sales for the company in 2011.

When BMS acquired Amylin in August 2012, it gained control of its blockbuster diabetes medications — and possibly liability for the drugs.

FDA (2013) “FDA Drug Safety Communication: FDA investigating reports of possible increased risk of pancreatitis and pre-cancerous findings of the pancreas from incretin mimetic drugs for type 2 diabetes”http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm343187.htm

After being rejected twice by the FDA because of concerns with its association with bladder cancer, BMS finally received approval to market its Type 2 diabetes drug Farxiga (dapagliflozin) in January 2014.

Eliquis sales rose from $1.9 billion in 2015 to $3.3 billion the following year.

In June 2016, the FDA strengthened its warning about the kidney risk for people taking Farxiga and Invokana.

Opdivo and Eliquis were responsible for almost 45 percent of its revenue in the first quarter of 2017.