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Bristol-Myers Squibb Updates The Investment Community On The Continued Execution Of The Company’s Strategy


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Presentations to be made on the Performance of Pharmaceutical Growth Drivers, Product Launches and Regulatory Filings Anticipated in 2006, and Productivity Plans


NEW YORK (December 12, 2005) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) is presenting an update on its progress toward completing the strategic transformation of its business, to achieve sales and earnings growth beginning in 2007, in an investment community meeting here on Monday. The meeting comes at a time when the company is completing a key transition in its pharmaceutical portfolio as part of its enhanced focus on addressing areas of significant unmet medical need.

“With the execution of our strategy over the past few years, we’re on track to complete our strategic transition at the end of 2006,” said Peter R. Dolan, chief executive officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “We expect to be in a position to achieve a new period of sustainable revenue and earnings growth, starting in 2007 -- based on our portfolio of important new marketed products, as well as a productive R&D pipeline. For this to occur, we must first stay focused on investing behind our growth drivers and our pipeline. And, perhaps most importantly, we must drive our current productivity efforts even harder and more systematically across the entire company, in order to have the resources to fund those investments.”

Bristol-Myers Squibb estimates that it cut annual expenses by about $200 million in each of 2004 and 2005, primarily through realigning its U.S. and European sales forces around a specialty-driven focus, restructuring pharmaceutical development, and some outsourcing of information technology activities.

“We continue to examine our operating model to focus resources and work on high-value priorities,” Dolan said. “We intend to simplify and streamline business processes, governance and decision-making, and we expect to build new capabilities to execute our strategy over the long term.”

The company’s goal is to realize a minimum of approximately $500 million in additional savings in 2007 and an incremental $100 million in 2008 primarily through new productivity plans, above and beyond what Bristol-Myers Squibb already has achieved.

The company’s continued focus on reducing expenses is even more imperative, given the recognition that Pargluva™ (muraglitazar) will not contribute to the company’s near-term revenue and earnings. As previously announced, the company is considering a range of options for Pargluva, the company’s investigational oral medicine for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, including conducting additional clinical studies or terminating development of the product.

Research & Development
Bristol-Myers Squibb is also providing details at today’s meeting on a number of late-stage development compounds designed to address significant unmet medical need in serious disease areas, including:

# Investigational cancer drugs ixabepilone and ipilimumab (MDX-010), as well as dasatinib, for which a rolling submission of a New Drug Application is under way and is expected to be completed within the next month;

# An investigational compound for the treatment of solid organ transplant rejection, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s internally discovered biologic belatacept; and

# Potential therapies currently under regulatory review, such as the internally discovered biologic Orencia® (abatacept) for rheumatoid arthritis and EMSAM (selegiline transdermal system) for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).


Commercial Operations
In presentations on the company’s commercial operations, executives will highlight the ongoing execution of the company’s strategic focus on specialists and high-value primary care physicians. In the last five years, in the United States, Bristol-Myers Squibb representatives detailing to oncology, virology, neuroscience and other specialists increased from 20 percent to 56 percent of the total sales force, while the overall number of reps was reduced by 30 percent, to about 2,800 during the same period.

The size of the company’s current U.S. sales force was scaled to support a portfolio that was expected to be available for promotion. Now that Pargluva™ will not be a part of that portfolio in the near term, the company is considering a range of options to utilize this freed up capacity within the sales force.

In anticipation of the potential approval of Orencia, the company has created an Immunoscience sales organization that stands ready to support the product upon launch. Bristol-Myers Squibb’s plan for manufacturing capacity for Orencia® and other biologics is also being discussed.

Today’s commercial overview will include life-cycle management activities for pharmaceutical products that are among the company’s current and future growth drivers: Plavix®, the world’s leading platelet aggregation inhibitor; Abilify® (aripiprazole), an antipsychotic agent for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute bipolar mania and Bipolar I Disorder; Baraclude™ (entecavir), a therapy for hepatitis B; and HIV treatments Sustiva® (efavirenz) and Reyataz® (atazanavir sulfate).

“We see a promising pipeline taking shape -- one of the most promising pipelines in our company’s history,” Dolan said. “And we see the real impact our products are having on the lives of people with serious diseases. Our goal now is to continue executing our strategy for building long-term leadership and growth, and ultimately to realize the promising future we envision for our patients, for our employees and for our company.”

Investors and the general public are invited to listen to a live webcast of the meeting from 1 p.m to 4:30 p.m. (ET) at www.bms.com/ir. A replay of the business update will also be available at the same company website until January 9, 2006.

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global pharmaceutical and related health care products company whose mission is to extend and enhance human life.

Statement on Cautionary Factors
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding, among other things, statements relating to goals, plans and projections regarding the company’s financial position, results of operations, market position, product development and business strategy. These statements may be identified by the fact that they use words such as “anticipate”, “estimates”, “should”, “expect”, “guidance”, “project”, “intend”, “plan”, “believe” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. These factors include, among other things, market factors, competitive product development, pricing controls and pressures (including changes in rules and practices of managed care groups and institutional and governmental purchasers), judicial decisions and governmental laws and regulations related to Medicare, Medicaid and health care reform, pharmaceutical rebates and reimbursement, claims and concerns that may arise regarding the safety and efficacy of in-line products and product candidates, changes to wholesaler inventory levels, governmental regulations and legislation, difficulties and delays in product development, manufacturing and sales, patent positions and litigation, including the outcome of the Plavix® litigation in the United States and the expiration of patents on certain other products, and the impact and result of governmental investigations. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that future clinical studies will support the data described in this release, that the products will receive necessary regulatory approvals, or that they will prove to be commercially successful. For further details and a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.



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