B-MS Plans To Launch Three New Drugs A Year

Efficiency in both research and development will mean thatBristol-Myers Squibb will introduce three major new $500 million products each year on a consistent basis during the next decade, according to Peter Ringrose, president of the group's Pharmaceutical Research Institute, who noted that launches are now about one or two annually.

By the middle of the next decade, B-MS is looking for a trebling of its product portfolio, said Dr Ringrose, based on both licensed-in and its own products. No one in the industry is hitting three launches consistently, he told those attending a recent press dinner in New York, USA, but many are now making this their goal.

To reach that goal and be one of the industry leaders, companies have to look at their size and the product mix BMS' aim is that its size and product mix will see pharmaceuticals sales at least doubling by 2005 from the preent $8.7 billion.