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Speaker 1: Joining us now, Christopher Berner, Bristol Myers Squab CEO. Great see you, Christopher. Thanks for stopping by and giving us some of your time on what I'm sure is a busy schedule for you over these few days. Let's talk about it to be where you see this business. Let's talk about where you see this business. You've changed, you have come in, you've delivered a flurry of deals. You in the process of fixing Bristol Myers.

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, it's great to be here. Thank you for the time. Look, I'm incredibly excited to be taking over as CEO of this great company.

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Speaker 3: Our business is in a bit of a transition.

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Speaker 2: We have a number of products that have gone off patent, but we're replacing them with a younger, exciting portfolio, a portfolio that we think is going to drive long term sustainable growth for the company. And so you know, look, this business is one that continues to be dynamic. Business development has always been part of our history, and the deals that we've done over the last few months makes sense. The Karuna deal accelerates our entree or re entree into neuroscience. We extend ended our leadership position with additional platforms and oncology. So we're excited about the deals that we've done and we think they're going to contribute to the growth of the company in the back half of the decade.

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Speaker 4: Part of the reason why we love the David Morgant Healthcare Conference is like this is where also deals get done.

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Speaker 3: This is sort of the speed.

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Speaker 4: Dating, as Guy was referring to it, is that happening this year.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're seeing a lot of companies. You know, the innovation in this space has been absolutely spectacular, and again this year we're seeing a lot of really incredible innovation and fortunately for us, we've been active in this space. You know, business development was something that we've done historically.

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Speaker 3: We brought in great products like.

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Speaker 2: Avdivo and Camzios in cardiovascular disease via business development. And this year, of course, we've done a few deals. We did the Karuna deal, which again accelerates us into neuroscience. We have gained access to probably the fastest growing platform in oncology in radio pharmaceuticals with a deal with a company called Raise Bio. Incredibly excited about that opportunity, and we're going to continue to have business development be part of how we think about capital allocation.

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Speaker 1: Because the market has to be concerned about the company and its pipeline. It's business in the latter half of this decade, it's not now, it's further down the road. As you say, you've got a bunch of things coming off patents. Are the deals that you're doing validating that concern?

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Speaker 2: Well, Look, I mean the first priority that we have as a company is to focus on what is a absolutely spectacular.

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Speaker 3: Pipeline that we have Internally.

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Speaker 2: We have probably more catalysts from our internal organic pipeline than I think we've ever had. We have the potential to launch over sixteen new medicines between now in the end.

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Speaker 3: Of the decade.

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Speaker 2: Just since the last JPM Morgan, we've doubled the number of late stage assets we have. So we have a very very good pipeline. You know, Historically, as I've said, business development has been part of how we source innovation.

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Speaker 3: It's going to continue to be.

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Speaker 2: But I wouldn't confuse that with the lying dynamics that we have in our portfolio, which is a very strong portfolio today.

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Speaker 4: Okay, so we're not reading into what you think about the current portfolio because of the flurry of M and A not at all. Okay, So it is the M and A stuff done for you.

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Speaker 2: Well, as I said, business development is going to be part of the way we think about capital allocation. We've been able to do business to development historically while also committing to return capital to shareholders. We've returned over thirty billion dollars to shareholders over the last three years. We've maintained a commitment to the dividend. We've raised the dividend consecutively fifteen years in a row. But we're going to continue to source innovation externally, add it to what is a very robust pipeline that we have internally.

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Speaker 1: GLP ones. Are you interested? What do you think? A lot of noise in that space? Last year, obesity has been the big story for the healthcaret sect. Is it okay not to be in that space.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're not in the GLP one or metal space, but let me tell you where we are.

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Speaker 3: We are in four very.

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Speaker 2: Commercially attractive and growing therapeutic areas today. We have a large presence, for example, in cardiovascular disease, in oncology, we're growing our business in immunology, and as I said, we're reaccelerating in a very active area of neuroscience. So these are important areas, but above and beyond the individual assets that we have in those therapeutic areas, we're investing in platforms that are incredibly exciting. We're particularly excited about our cell therapy platform, for example, which has the potential to move from oncology into immunology and be a very large contributor to growth in the back half of the decade.

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Speaker 1: Because how do you think though the obesity story is going to develop, It's not going to happen in isolation. What happens with people's waistlines, their metabolic rates has an impact on so much else within the healthcare sector. What do you think the ripple effects of this are going to be and what are those going to look like? And is it that kind of second derivative effects into cardiovascular into other areas of the healthcare sector that I think could prove to be just as interesting.

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Speaker 3: Well, I think you're right.

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Speaker 2: I think all aspects of healthcare in some way related, and so I think as you start to see changes, for example, in metabolic disease, it certainly has broader implications. From our standpoint, we're watching it because of the focus in cardiovascular disease that we have. You know, we're a leader today in cardiovascular disease. We have a very big business in cardiomyopathies with a drug that we acquired through business development called Camzios that's doing very well with long term potential. And we're a leader in thrombosis with eloquist today, and we've got an exciting portfolio in thrombosis to maintain that leadership position.

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Speaker 3: So we're watching it very closely.

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Speaker 4: Is there any point where you think you may want to get into that space, like is there efficacy or take up or even Medicare or Medicaid covering it that would sort of maybe trigger you guys to think of it differently.

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Speaker 2: Well, we look at our therapeutic areas in a very dynamic way. We're not sort of dogmatic in the areas that we're in today. For example, we were in neuroscience many years ago with.

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Speaker 3: A drug called a bilify.

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Speaker 2: It was one of the largest drugs in the world, is still being used heavily in that space. We've decided to get back into that space now because we're excited about our early portfolio in Alzheimer's disease, and of course now with Karuna we've made the move into neurosyche, which has a nice adjacency to neurodegeneration. So we're always looking for where there are opportunities. The key thing we focus on, though, is where do we find really exciting science and where is it likely that Bristol myersquipt can be a leader.

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Speaker 3: That's what we focus on.

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Speaker 1: So Christopher paying me a picture. You're at the JP Morgan conference. You're talking to a whole bunch of people, You're bumping into a whole lot of people. What are people talking about? Is what is happening with JLP ones, is it the story of last year? What's happening with the election coming up in the United States and elsewhere around the world. What are people talking about at that conference, because that's going to give us a good idea of what twenty four is going to be looking like rather than twenty three.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think there are a couple of things people are talking about. I think generally in the industry, there's a lot of discussion, of course about the therapeutic areas that you just reference. There's also a lot of excitement about innovation in this space. You're seeing a pickup in some of the discussions around business development. Of course, we were active in that at the end of last year. There's a lot of exciting innovation being discussed at this conference. Of course, we're focused on how do we tell our story about how this company is going to evolve to be one of the fastest growing companies in the industry by the end of the decade. There's a lot of interest in what does that business look like over the course of the decade.

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Speaker 3: So those are the conversations that we're having.

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Speaker 2: But there is a lot of excitement about the possibilities for truly innovative medicines in this space, and of course Bristol Myers Squib is at the center of that innovation ecosystem.

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Speaker 4: Christopher, this might be more of a question that you and your CFO have, but on a macro level, for the markets, we talk a lot about what central banks are going to do in cutting rates. If the Better Reserve cuts rates, does that do anything for you guys, Does that help in any way? Is it jumpstart M and A in any way whatsoever? Because this is a markedly different environment today than if you guys had this conference six months ago.

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Speaker 2: Well, listen, the way we think about m and as first and foremost doesn't make strategic sense for us to be involved in it. And then are there deals that do a few things, build depth and therapeutic areas we're in, or expand in areas that we want to go into where we find the science super attractive and exciting. And then of course the deals have to make financial sense. And all of that is in some ways independent of what's happening in the broader macro environment. We're very fortunate at BMS to have a very strong business. It's a very strong cash generating business. We certainly have the financial flexibility and horsepower to do the deals we want to do, really to some extent, irrespective of these broader macroeconomic factors.

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Speaker 4: Say, with macroeconomics, for just one more moment, Christopher, what's your hiring situation, Like, how has your labor force evolved and kind of what's your outlook on that end for this year.

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Speaker 2: Well, our labor force continues to evolve with the evolution of our business. So for example, we've just done a deal to re enter neuroscience. That's a space we've not been in for some amount of time. We're going to be building that infrastructure.

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Speaker 3: We've got a.

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Speaker 2: PADUFA date for car Xt, which is the lead asset we got from Karuna in September, so we got to build that team. I would say across the remainder of the business that labor force.

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Speaker 3: Is relatively stable right now, but we're going.

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Speaker 2: To always evolve the organization to align to where we're focused as a company.

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Speaker 3: All right, Christopher, thanks a lot.

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Speaker 4: We appreciate you coming over and giving us so much of your time. Christopher Berner or Bristol Maya Squipt