Bristol Revs Its R&D Engine: An Interview with Elliott Sigal and Francis Cuss

Just one year ago, Bristol-Myers Squibb's days as an independent entity seemed numbered. But thanks to the resolution of the Plavix crisis, innovative deal-making, and an R&D pipeline surging with specialty-focused products, the company is now thriving. In a free-wheeling Q&A, Bristol's R&D gurus, Francis Cuss and Elliott Sigal, discuss the need for a new kind of biopharma that is specialty-focused and technology agnostic.

Ellen Foster Licking

A little more than a year ago, the independent future of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. seemed in doubt. In July 2006, the US Department of Justice had announced a criminal investigation into the legality of Bristol’s deal with Apotex Inc. for an authorized generic of the company’s biggest product, clopidogrel ( Plavix). [See Deal] Apotex went ahead with an at-risk launch of its version of the medicine, sending BMS’s stock price tumbling to a ten-year low. By mid-September CEO Peter Dolan was out of a job and James Cornelius, a director at the pharma, was at the helm

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