Analysts suggest Bristol-Myers Squibb requires new CEO

Commercial analysts have suggested that the best way for Bristol-Myers Squibb to reverse its recent fortunes may be for it to get a new CEO.

The pharmaceutical has seen its shares drop by around 17 per cent in the last few months following a criminal investigation into a settlement it made with another drug company over the release of a cheaper version of Plavix.

It was recently reported that Bristol-Myers Squibb along with Sanofi-aventis was seeking a court injunction against Applex to stop it providing a generic clopidogrel bisulfate product that competes with Plavix, a treatment for blood-clotting. However, since the collapse of the deal, analysts have suggests that investors could be “fed up with the company’s missteps” while Peter Dolan has been chief executive.

Jon Fisher, portfolio manager with Fifth Third Asset Management, told
Reuters: “They only have three options: continue as is, change management or try to sell the company. I think if they try to sell the company, they’re going to be disappointed with the offers they get from prospective buyers.”

With Bristol-Myers Squibb “unlikely to be taken over at current market value”, Reuters suggests that the company will need to undergo a management shake-up in order to reassert its value among investors. Mr Fisher added that Dolan might not survive at the company following schemes to inflate revenue, which was made public in 2002.

Sanofi-aventis has also been criticised in the affair, with experts commenting that it has been slow to file the injunction as share analysts have wondered why the company has taken the time it has to deal with the situation.

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