Global access and pricing position statement
Learn about Bristol Myers Squibb's position on global access and pricing and its commitment to helping patients around the world access innovative medicines in a sustainable and equitable manner.
Our approach
Bristol Myers Squibb believes in the value that our innovative medicines bring to patients and society and our role in transforming care to help patients prevail over serious diseases.
Our commitment to enabling high-quality patient access to our medicines is rooted in three core principles:
- Ensuring pricing reflects the value and benefits our medicines provide to patients, healthcare systems and society
- Employing innovative pricing models to support patient access and affordability
- Creating long-term sustainable global solutions to address health inequities
Guided by these principles, our approach to pricing focuses on three critical areas:
Value
Reflecting the value that medicines deliver to patients, healthcare systems and society.For patients, we focus on the health outcomes our treatments provide. Beyond the clinical value, the price of our medicines also reflects their value to the healthcare system, including driving greater efficiency in resource utilization that ultimately contributes to sustainability. At the societal level, we consider the broader impact that our medicines have on caregivers, families and support networks beyond the individual patient.
Access
Ensuring patients who can benefit from BMS medicines have access to and are able to afford them.We begin the process of developing access pathways early in the drug development journey. This helps us to better understand market dynamics, such as regulatory frameworks, public and private healthcare financing models and reimbursement policies, that directly impact patient affordability and coverage at the local level. We continuously adapt our approach post-launch to address the evolving payer landscape and ensure sustainable patient access. We work closely with local health authorities and payers in all countries in which our medicines are available to determine pathways for patient access.
Innovation
Fueling investment in discovery and development of innovative medicines and supporting future research.
It is important for future scientific innovation that the price of medicines reflect our investment in long-term and large-scale investment resources required to develop breakthrough therapies. Our research and development (R&D) efforts focus on breakthrough science that aims for first-in-class/best-in-class therapies to help patients prevail over serious diseases across our core therapeutic areas.
Innovations that reach patients often build on learnings of previous research that did not meet clinical endpoints. Our pricing approach accounts for the risks associated with scientific innovation, with recognition that not every clinical program will result in an approved medicine, and helps support future research – whether into new areas of unmet need or new uses for existing treatments.
Bristol Myers Squibb Patient Assistance Foundation (BMSPAF)
BMS donates medicines to BMSPAF, an independent foundation that can help eligible patients without insurance or limited insurance coverage gain access to their prescribed medicines in the U.S.BMS Access Support®
BMS Access Support® provides resources to help patients understand their insurance coverage, offers educational materials to support patients throughout their treatment journey and provides information on financial support options, including co-pay assistance for eligible, commercially insured patients.BMS Direct-to-Patient Programs
We believe that more can be done to lower costs for U.S. patients while improving affordability and transparency. BMS Patient Connect is our direct-to-patient platform and patient support resource that allows eligible patients to purchase select medicines directly from BMS while lowering out-of-pocket costs.BMS sets the list price for our medicines, which is the price often referenced in media and research, but we do not control what patients pay out of pocket. True to our commitment, we negotiate significantly lower costs with payers through rebates and discounts. Approximately half of every dollar of our gross sales goes back into the healthcare system, resulting in net prices far below published list prices. In the U.S., list prices do not reflect the numerous discounts given to third-party entities. We share our aggregate average net price change and aggregate value of discounts, rebates and other price concessions for our medicines annually, demonstrating our commitment to transparency.
Our commitment to equitable healthcare worldwide
BMS is committed to broadening access to our medicines by integrating access strategies early in product development and tailoring them to local market needs. BMS develops scalable, country-specific pathways for new therapies, considering local regulations, affordability and distribution, so patients can benefit regardless of geography or income.
BMS also considers affordability and the overall budget impact of our medicine in the context of the local setting when developing prices. Our approach ranges, depending on the geography, from public and private reimbursement that reflects the value of our innovative medicines to assistance to reduce patient out-of-pocket burdens. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), we account for ability and willingness to pay and offer tiered pricing, including not-for-profit pricing for least developed countries where we do not have a commercial presence and where appropriate. We also consider ways to enable medical centers of excellence in these countries to gain access to our specialty care products.