Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb, often referred to as BMS, is an American pharmaceutical company, headquartered in New York City.

Bristol-Myers Squibb manufactures prescription pharmaceuticals in several therapeutic areas, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis and psychiatric disorders. Its mission is to "discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases."

BMS' primary R&D sites are located in Lawrence Township (formerly Squibb, near Princeton) and Wallingford, Connecticut (formerly Bristol-Myers), with other sites in Hopewell and New Brunswick, New Jersey, and in Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium, Tokyo, Japan and Bangalore, India.

History

Squibb was founded in 1858 by Edward Robinson Squibb in Brooklyn, New York. Squibb was known as a vigorous advocate of quality control and high purity standards within the fledgling pharmaceutical industry of his time, at one point self-publishing an alternative to the U.S. Pharmacopeia (Squibb's Ephemeris of Materia Medica) after failing to convince the American Medical Association to incorporate higher purity standards. Mentions of the Materia Medica, Squibb products, and Edward Squibb's opinion on the utility and best method of preparation for various medicants are found in many medical papers of the late 1800s. Squibb Corporation served as a major supplier of medical goods to the Union Army during the United States Civil War, providing portable medical kits containing morphine, surgical anesthetics, and quinine for the treatment of malaria (which was endemic in most of the eastern United States at that time).