Bristol Myers changes recipe

Sandra Orta (Barcelona, ​​47 years old) is going strong.

She says that when she was asked as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up, she responded that what she wanted was to change the world.

Now, with the background of having worked for more than 20 years in seven different countries (France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa), back in Spain he has a vague idea: he wants to help transform the leadership of the country.

“We are very hierarchical and I want to break that hierarchy and quickly,” she says.

Her goal is for teams to feel empowered and take risks.

And also for other models of managers to emerge that are not as stereotyped as the current ones, such as hers as a single mother, she says.

In her role as general director of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for the Iberian Peninsula, she has the task of turning the company into a biopharmaceutical company that develops cutting-edge medicines by accelerating innovation.

“I'm good at transformations and keeping team morale high,” she boasts.

The American company founded in 1887 is experiencing a moment of mutation.

“It is immersed in a transformation plan to become one of the large growth pharmaceutical companies.

Although it faces headwinds, such as the regulation of drug prices in the United States, a more competitive environment and the loss of patents throughout this decade, with the consequent impact on income and profits," the experts warn. in the health sector of Renta 4, Elena Rico and Ana Gómez.

It is already suffering from this impact and has led the new global CEO, Christopher Boerner, to turn the helm to change the company's product portfolio from top to bottom.

The new lever of growth.

“Spain plays a key role in this global transformation.

Especially in innovation.

We are the country with the most clinical trials outside the United States.

We have 112 clinical trials and 3,200 patients, which is quick to say, and we are among the top five pharmaceutical companies in Spain for investment in these clinical trials,” says the general director of BMS for Spain and Portugal.

"In addition, we have the only R&D center for molecules in very early stages outside the United States, the Translational Research Center (Citre), which is in Seville, and what it does is apply advanced computing, artificial intelligence, to search therapeutic targets and biomarkers, designing molecules or degrading proteins.”

The annual budget that the company manages in research and development in Spain is 50 million euros.

The development of new drugs is one of the legs of the turnaround in the company.

“We have more than 50 molecules in development, which is a lot,” says Orta.

The other leg is buying companies that can offset the loss of revenue from drugs like Revlimid.

“In the last quarter of last year alone we have made three very important acquisitions.

Mirati Therapeutics, which will provide us with targeted therapy in oncology and will complement us in immunotherapy, where we have been pioneers.

The pharmaceutical company RayzeBio, with which we entered nuclear oncology, and Karuna, a specialist in neurodegenerative diseases, which is also pending authorization and greatly complements our portfolio,” he underlines.

BMS will invest almost 24 billion dollars (about 22 billion euros) in these operations, “reinforcing its neuroscience and oncology divisions with a promising pipeline,” according to Renta 4 experts.

Purchases and agreements

“We are going to focus on oncology and hematology, we have 80% of the new molecules in development there, and also on immunological and cardiovascular diseases,” explains Orta.

And corporate purchases will continue, she adds;

In fact, they are prospecting in Europe.

They are also going to extend collaborations with other pharmaceutical companies, such as the one they have with Pfizer for thrombosis.

Or the one recently sealed with SystImmune, highly rated by Renta 4 analysts. “There are more on the horizon,” Orta advances.

The directive highlights what BMS is doing differently from other companies in the sector: “We are not looking for molecules that are copies or very similar to others.

“We are going to areas where there may be less prevalence, but we want to be the first to arrive with new mechanisms of action for those diseases where there are still no therapeutic solutions or there are few.”

And he gives examples: “At the end of October we obtained approval for a new indication for lung cancer immunotherapy treatment, where we treat the cancer before surgery, and with which we have changed the paradigm of the treatment of this disease, and they have It was the Spanish scientists who achieved it.

Another example for which we have also recently achieved approval is for Spain's first cell therapy against multiple myeloma, a CAR-T solution, in which the patient's cells are extracted, manipulated and reinjected."

BMS looks for therapeutic platforms, not just molecules, says Orta, so that it has impact, so that what works for one disease can be replicated in others.

In addition to these treatments, the company is also launching products: its new indication against lung cancer (Opdualag);

In early March it will begin marketing Sotyktu, the first daily oral therapy against psoriasis, and Abecma, a CAR-T cell therapy against myeloma.

It has 16 drugs close to launch.

Orta assures that 2024 and 2025 will be years of releases in Spain and Portugal, where BMS had a turnover of 530 million euros in 2023. A far cry from the 857 million registered in 2021, when they had not yet lost the Revlimid patent.

The executive plans to recover that figure “without rushing.”

“The new transformative therapies are going to be the ones that are going to take us back to those 800 million or more starting in 2028 or 2030,” she predicts.

The company earned 45,000 million dollars in the world, below the 46,169 million obtained in 2022 (largely due to the 36% decrease in sales of the cancer drug Revlimid), but with a growth of 7% if consider new products.

According to Renta 4, “its margins remain on average above those of the sector, demonstrating that the business is profitable and has a high cash generation capacity, which gives it flexibility to reinvest in the development of its business.”

However, Morgan Stanley does not see it so clearly.

Not in vain, it advises underweighting BMS shares and is much more conservative than the pharmaceutical company regarding the evolution of income from its new drugs, which will not compensate for the lower sales of mature drugs due to competition with generics.

The investment bank is aware that its estimates are below the market consensus because it sees limited potential for the company.

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