The Company enters strategic collaboration with the Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM) Coalition to expand access to immuno-oncology therapy Opdivo in select countries
PRINCETON, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / May 22, 2024 / Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) today announced ASPIRE (Accessibility, Sustainability, Patient-centric, Impact, Responsibility and Equity), a 10-year strategy to advance access to our innovative treatments and help patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) gain access to potentially life-saving medicines. This strategy supports the company's commitment to reach more than 200,000 patients in LMICs by 2033 with its innovative treatments.
"Access to potentially life-saving innovative medicines is very limited in some parts of the world, leaving patients with few treatment options for serious diseases like cancer," said Christopher Boerner, Ph.D., board chair and chief executive officer, Bristol Myers Squibb. "Bristol Myers Squibb believes patients who can benefit from our medicines should have access to them. Our ASPIRE strategy is an important step toward accelerating and expanding patient access to these much-needed treatments."
As part of ASPIRE, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is developing tailored strategies to increase affordability and availability of its medicines in LMICs. Our work to help ensure patients who need our potentially life-saving medicines can access them begins by ensuring that 100 percent of our marketed products are supported by access plans. Today we have defined access pathways for every country in which our medicines may be available to patients.
In low- and middle-income countries, to help improve the affordability of our medicines, we have introduced local brands of many of our innovative medicines to address affordability issues, expand access, and help reduce the time lag between the availability of our medicines in higher-income countries and lower-income countries. In 2023, BMS filed a total of 11 local brands of which five received regulatory approvals. BMS local brands are making an impact in countries like Thailand, which has the highest prevalence of beta thalassemia, by providing treatment options like Rojusna to help combat this widespread disease.
BMS is also making its medicines available where we don't have a commercial presence through the Direct Import and the Direct-to-Institution pathways. Through the Direct Import pathway, BMS is providing access to 12 medicines in more than 80 LMICs, using tiered pricing commensurate with affordability. The Direct-to-Institution (DTI) pathway is a scalable and sustainable channel that provides safe, broad, timelier access to BMS' innovative medicines to multiple patients through collaboration with local institutions. The company's initial DTI efforts are in five LMICs in East Africa and Pakistan and West Africa in 2025, with the goal of scaling to more than 15 LMICs by 2026.
BMS is leading the way for access to immuno-oncology therapies in LMICs by collaborating with the Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM) Coalition. BMS joined the ATOM Coalition as a founding supporter at its launch in 2022. Working with the ATOM Coalition and their partners, BMS will make Opdivo (nivolumab) available via a safe, scalable and sustainable access model in select countries including Pakistan, Rwanda and Zambia while working to develop an integrated pathway that can expand access in multiple LMICs by 2026.
By investing in solutions that reduce quality-of-care gaps and strengthen health systems, BMS will help drive equitable access to innovative medicines to patients around the world, regardless of where patients live. Enabling timely access to innovative medicines in LMICs is part of BMS' commitment to health equity globally and our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy.
About Bristol Myers Squibb
Bristol Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information about Bristol Myers Squibb, visit us at BMS.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding, among other things, the Company's goals, strategies, and performance in accordance with its 2023 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the many risks and uncertainties that affect Bristol Myers Squibb's business and market, particularly those identified in the cautionary statement and risk factors discussion in Bristol Myers Squibb's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, as updated by our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made only as of the date of this document and except as otherwise required by applicable law, Bristol Myers Squibb undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise.
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