SAN FRANCISCO—Bristol Myers Squibb is already aiming to launch more than 10 new medicines by 2030. But to hear CEO Chris Boerner, Ph.D., tell it, “business development remains a top priority” for the company’s capital allocation strategy heading into 2026.
BMS is already known for its strong dealmaking appetite under Boerner, who has been CEO since November 2023. In addition to a string of acquisitions that brought Mirati Therapeutics, Karuna Therapeutics and RayzeBio into the fold, BMS last year bought Orbital Therapeutics for a preclinical in vivo cell therapy for autoimmune disease.
BMS completed $30 billion worth of deals over the past two years, including five transactions in 2025, Boerner said Monday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
“We’re going to cast a broad net,” Boerner said. “But that net really is focused on, how can we improve the growth profile of the company and deliver on” the New Jersey pharma’s long-term objectives.
BMS has the firepower to snag later-stage drugs, Boerner said, as evidenced by the company’s $14 billion Karuna deal less than a year before the approval of the biotech’s first-in-class schizophrenia drug Cobenfy.
To further consolidate its financial position, BMS is well on its way to delivering the $2 billion in annual cost savings by 2027 the company outlined as its goal last February, Boerner said.
“Our primary focus is going to be to continue to build up in the core therapeutic areas that we’re in,” Boerner said. “And we think we’ve got opportunities to do that, really, across each of those [therapeutic areas].”
During his presentation at JPM, Boerner highlighted six assets across neuroscience, cardiovascular, immunology and oncology with multibillion-dollar potential.
Besides Cobenfy, other drugs on the list include Johnson & Johnson-partnered oral factor Xia inhibitor milvexian, pulmonary fibrosis candidate admilparant, BioNTech-partnered PD-L1xVEGF bispecific antibody pumitamig and two oral CELMoD agents for multiple myeloma. Together, the drugs are critical to strengthening the long-term trajectory of BMS, Boerner said.
Several of those drugs are expected to generate pivotal data this year. These include Cobenfy from three closely watched Adept trials in Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, milvexian in atrial fibrillation and secondary stroke prevention, admilparant in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and the two CELMoD drugs—iberdomide and mezigdomide—in previously treated myeloma.
BMS picked up co-development and co-commercial rights to pumitamig last year through a potential $11 billion collaboration with BioNTech.
“Our strategy with this asset is to be either first or second in each of the indications that we’re pursuing,” Boerner said. “By the end of this year, we expect to add three new registrational trials, including a broader reach across two non-small cell lung indications and a study in head and neck cancer.
Several phase 3 setbacks last year—including for Cobenfy and milvexian—may give BMS more reason to tag on more deals. As the trial failures rolled in, Boerner in July brought in a new chief medical officer, Cristian Massacesi, M.D., from AstraZeneca.
Massacesi “brought in new energy and perspective,” but with the same focus on “the right areas of science that […] we know well and we can add value to,” Boerner said Monday at JPM.
The flow of assets could go both ways for BMS. Amid the company's ongoing pipeline assessment, BMS may identify areas of need or decide to cast off certain programs.