>BMS said it now aims to further improve on these savings, expecting to make $500 million in additional savings in 2007 and an incremental $100 million in 2008.
"For revenue and earnings growth to occur, we must stay focused on investing behind our pipeline and we must drive our current productivity efforts even harder in order to have the resources to fund those investments," said Peter Dolan, CEO, BMS.
"We see a promising pipeline taking shape - one of the most promising pipelines in our company's history," said Dolan.
The pharma giant has achieved its cost cuts thus far by realigning its US and EU sales forces around a specialty-driven focus, restructuring pharmaceutical development, and outsourcing some of its information technology (IT) activities.
There is a current trend amongst drug companies to cost-effectively manage and secure the growing amounts of data that are required in the life sciences industry by outsourcing key IT activities.
In addition, the number of recent drug withdrawals have brought about an increased focus on pharmacovigilance and related regulatory compliance and many companies are also increasingly outsourcing IT to achieve 21 CFR Part 11 and other related compliance.
BMS's continued focus on reducing expenses has become even more imperative, given the recognition that Pargluva (muraglitazar), an experimental diabetes drug made by BMS and Merck, will not contribute to the company's near-term revenue and earnings.
Recent evidence has suggested that Pargluva may increase the risk of congestive heart failure and even death in some people, and BMS is now considering a range of options for the drug, including conducting additional clinical studies or terminating development of the product.