Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) has designated as ‘The Best Big Drug Company of 2011’ in the latest issue of Forbes. The share price of the leading pharmaceutical company, which is listed in NYSE, increased 32 per cent to $35 over the course of the year.

In March, the Food and Drug Administration cleared Yervoy, the first drug to extend the survival of patients with metastatic melanoma, by several months. Like many other cancer drugs, it does have potentially toxic side effects, but analysts expect it to be a multi-billion dollar seller.

On this occasion, Pheroze Khan, managing director, BMS India said , Bristol- Myers Squibb is poised to become a major player in Indian Pharma space despite being a new entrant to the country in 2004.

BMS India, has launched periodic initiatives to address many of unmet healthcare need and will strive to continue to bring our global innovative products to India . Backing BMS ‘ commitment to help patients prevail over serious diseases, we believe our present portfolio and innovative pipeline of drugs can play a useful role in tackling threat from oncology, cardiovascular, metabolic, hepatitis and other chronic diseases in India, he added.

In August, BMS unveiled results of an 18,000-patient clinical trial of the blood-thinner Eliquis, which it is developing with Pfizer. Eliquis was the first anti-coagulant to prove that it reduced the risk of death compared to warfarin, which has been the standard of care for preventing strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation, a common heart rhythm disorder, for seven decades. The other new blood thinners, Pradaxa from Boehringer Ingelheim and Xarelto from Bayer and Johnson & Johnson, have reached the market before Eliquis but were deemed essentially similar. Eliquis is awaiting FDA approval.

Lamberto Andreotti, CEO, BMS, has built on the strategy put in place by drug-and-medical-device industry veteran James Cornelius, who ran the company for four years starting in 2006. Bristol had been hobbled by a series of drug research failures, patent expirations, and accounting scandals that led to the resignation of former chief executive Peter Dolan. The response was to sell non-core businesses and brands, most notably the Mead Johnson baby formula business, and focus on building a strong pharmaceutical presence – partly by doing daring deals like its $2.4 billion purchase of biotechnology firm Medarex in 2009. At the time, many researchers and analysts viewed the deal with skepticism, but it gave BMS full rights to Yervoy.