Sandra Orta (Barcelona, 47 years old) is going strong. When she was asked as a child what she wanted to be when she grew up, she replied that she wanted to change the world. Now, having worked for more than 20 years in seven different countries (France, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA and South Africa), back in Spain, between eyebrows and eyebrows, he has an idea: he wants to help to transform the country's leadership. “We are very hierarchical and I want to break that hierarchy quickly,” he says. The goal is for teams to feel empowered and take risks. And other manager models will also emerge that are not as stereotypical as the current ones, such as the single mother model, she says. In her role as General Manager of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for the Iberian Peninsula, she is tasked with developing the company into a biopharmaceutical company that develops cutting-edge medicines by accelerating innovation. “I’m good at making changes and keeping team morale high,” she boasts.
The American company founded in 1887 is experiencing a moment of change. “It is embarking on a transformation plan to become one of the largest growing pharmaceutical companies.” Although it has faced headwinds this decade, such as regulation of drug prices in the United States, a more competitive environment and the loss of patents, with the resultant resulting impact on income and social benefits,” warn the health sector experts from Renta 4, Elena Rico and Ana Gómez. The company is already suffering from these effects, prompting new global CEO Christopher Boerner to take the helm and fundamentally transform the company's product portfolio. The new growth lever.
“Spain plays a key role in this global change.” Especially in the area of innovation. We are the country with the most clinical trials outside the United States. We have 112 clinical trials and 3,200 patients, it's easy to say, and we are among the five largest pharmaceutical companies in Spain in terms of investments in these clinical trials,” says the General Director of BMS for Spain and Portugal. “In addition, we have the only research and development center for very early stage molecules outside the United States, the Translational Research Center (Citre), located in Seville, whose mission is to advance ethics in the search for information and artificial intelligence.” for therapeutic targets and biomarkers, design molecules or degrade proteins.” The annual budget that the company manages for research and development in Spain is 50 million euros.
The development of new drugs is one of the cornerstones of the company's turnaround. “We have more than 50 molecules in development, which is a lot,” says Orta. The other side is to buy companies that can offset lost revenue from drugs like Revlimid. “In the last quarter of last year alone we made three very important acquisitions. Mirati Therapeutics will provide us with targeted therapy in oncology and complement us in immunotherapy, where we have been pioneers. “The pharmaceutical company RayzeBio, with which we entered nuclear oncology, and Karuna, a specialist in neurodegenerative diseases, whose approval is also still pending and complements our portfolio excellently,” he emphasizes. According to Renta 4 experts, BMS will invest almost 24 billion dollars (almost 22 billion euros) in these operations and “strengthen its neuroscience and oncology divisions with a promising pipeline.”
Purchases and Agreements
“We will focus on oncology and hematology, where we have 80% of the new molecules in development, but also on immunological and cardiovascular diseases,” explains Orta. And corporate acquisitions will continue, he adds; In fact, they mine in Europe. They will also expand collaboration with other pharmaceutical companies, for example with Pfizer in the field of thrombosis. Or the one recently sealed with SystImmune, rated highly by Renta 4 analysts. “There are more on the horizon,” says Orta.
The policy makes it clear what makes BMS different from other companies in the industry: “We are not looking for molecules that are copies or very similar to others.” We are going into areas where there may be less prevalence, but we want those Be the first to develop new mechanisms of action for diseases for which there are currently no or only a few therapeutic solutions. And he gives examples: “At the end of October, we received approval for a new indication for lung cancer immunotherapy, in which we treat the cancer before surgery and with which we changed the paradigm of lung cancer treatment. this disease, and.” It was the Spanish scientists who did it. Another example, for which we also recently received approval, is Spain's first cell therapy for multiple myeloma, a CAR-T solution, in which cells are removed from the patient, manipulated and reinjected.
BMS is looking for therapeutic platforms, not just molecules, says Orta, so that it can have an impact and what works in one disease can be replicated in others. In addition to these treatments, the company is also launching products: its new lung cancer indication (Opdualag); In early March, the company will begin marketing Sotyktu, the first daily oral therapy for psoriasis, and Abecma, a CAR T-cell therapy for myeloma. 16 drugs are about to be launched on the market. Orta assures that 2024 and 2025 will be years of releases in Spain and Portugal, where BMS achieved sales of 530 million euros in 2023. A far cry from the 857 million registered in 2021, when they had not yet lost the Revlimid patent. The executive branch plans to recover this number “without haste.” “The new transformative therapies will be the ones that will get us back to 800 million or more from 2028 or 2030,” he predicts.
The company earned $45,000 million worldwide, down from 46,169 million in 2022 (mainly due to the 36% decline in sales of cancer drug Revlimid), but with growth of 7% when new products are taken into account. According to Renta 4, “on average, its margins remain above those of the industry, showing that the company is profitable and has a high cash generation capacity, giving it the flexibility to reinvest in the development of its business.”
However, Morgan Stanley doesn't see it so clearly. It is not for nothing that it advises underweighting BMS shares and is much more conservative than the pharmaceutical company in terms of the development of revenues from its new drugs, which will not offset the lower sales of mature drugs due to competition with generics. The investment bank is aware that its estimates are below market consensus as it sees limited potential for the company.
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