Bristol Myers Squibb Company

What does Bristol Myers Squibb own?
BMS owns a portfolio of prescription drug brands including Opdivo, Eliquis (co-marketed with Pfizer), Revlimid, Breyanzi, Abecma, Camzyos, Reblozyl, Cobenfy, Opdualag, Zeposia, and Krazati, plus the acquired pipelines of Celgene, Karuna, and Mirati.

Is Bristol Myers Squibb publicly traded?
Yes. Bristol Myers Squibb trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker BMY and is an S&P 500 component. The stock has been publicly listed since the Bristol-Myers side's earlier history, with the merged company trading since 1989.

Who founded Bristol Myers Squibb?
The modern company was created by merger in 1989 rather than founded by an individual. Its roots trace to William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers, who founded Bristol-Myers in 1887, and Edward Robinson Squibb, who founded Squibb in Brooklyn in 1858.

Where is Bristol Myers Squibb headquartered?
BMS is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, after relocating its corporate offices to the Princeton area. The company has maintained New Jersey roots since the merger era, with major research sites across the state.

How many brands does Bristol Myers Squibb own?
BMS markets roughly two dozen major product brands globally, led by Eliquis, Opdivo, and the growing Growth Portfolio drugs. As a pharmaceutical company its brands are prescription medicines rather than consumer-facing labels.

Who owns Bristol Myers Squibb?
BMS is owned by public shareholders, with Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street as the largest institutional holders. Christopher Boerner serves as board chair and chief executive officer. No single owner controls the company.

Bristol Myers Squibb formed in 1989 when Bristol-Myers Company merged with Squibb Corporation in what was then one of the largest pharmaceutical mergers ever. The parents brought very different lineages: Bristol-Myers, founded in 1887 in New York, built OTC brands including Bufferin and Excedrin alongside prescription drugs; Squibb, founded in Brooklyn in 1858 by Dr. Edward Robinson Squibb, was a pioneering pharmaceutical manufacturer that had supplied the Union Army.

The combined company developed major products through the 1990s and 2000s including the statin Pravachol, the blood thinner Plavix (co-developed with Sanofi, one of pharma's biggest blockbusters at its peak), and the diabetes drug Glucophage. The 2009 divestiture of Mead Johnson Nutrition sharpened its pure-pharma focus.

The defining modern deal came in 2019 with the $74 billion acquisition of Celgene, closed just before the pandemic and bringing Revlimid plus the cell therapy franchise that became Breyanzi. Revlimid's generic erosion began almost immediately, making the deal's legacy debated even as it funded the hematology expansion.

Under Christopher Boerner, who became CEO in late 2023 after Giovanni Caforio's retirement, the company continued bolting on pipeline assets: Karuna Therapeutics for $14 billion in 2024 brought schizophrenia drug Cobenfy, and Mirati Therapeutics added the KRAS cancer drug Krazati. FY2025 results showed the strategy working: total revenue of $48.2 billion held flat while the Growth Portfolio grew 17 percent to $26.4 billion, GAAP EPS recovered to $3.46 from a loss year in 2024, and the company marked its 17th consecutive annual dividend increase.

BMS is a consistent Fortune 500 component and appears on Forbes' Global 2000. It regularly lands on workplace and sustainability rankings including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and multiple best-employer lists, and Opdivo and Eliquis have each been ranked among the most commercially successful drug launches in pharmaceutical history.

BMS's most prominent legal exposure is the long-running federal antitrust and patent litigation around Plavix and Eliquis, plus the general industry scrutiny of drug pricing. Eliquis was selected for Medicare price negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act, with negotiated prices taking effect in 2026, directly contributing to the guided revenue decline.

The 2019 Celgene acquisition has faced retrospective criticism over deal price given Revlimid's decline, though the cell therapy franchise remains valuable. BMS has also faced multiple litigation matters tied to acquired products and historical manufacturing issues, none approaching company-defining scale.