Bristol Myers Squibb considers healthcare shift

Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS) is reportedly looking to expand into healthcare in an effort to reduce its dependency on the prescription drugs market.

According to a report in the Financial Times (FT), the company is looking to achieve more of a balance between the two areas, with its current profits from healthcare less than half of what comes from pharmaceuticals.

“Right now, we’re 70-30 in terms of profitability coming from pharma and from healthcare,” said BMS chief executive Peter Dolan, according to the FT.

“If we could make that shift higher on the healthcare businesses I think that might be a good thing for us to do. You don’t face exclusivity losses and major changes to your portfolio.”

Mr Dolan said that the focus is on the company’s development in the 2007-11 period, where it will begin to look at other companies around it in the healthcare sector that it may be worth making “part of our broader healthcare portfolio”.

The FT said that earnings for BMS are expected to fall this year as a result of patents on big drugs expiring accounting for $1 billion of annual sales.

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