The company’s consumer medicines businesses in Japan, China, Latin America Europe, Middle East and Africa are not included in this divestiture.
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s primary consumer medicine brands in the US and Canada are headache medicine Excedrin, moisturizers line Keri, and Comtrex cold, cough and flu medication. For the year ended December 31, 2003, sales of consumer medicines brands in the US and Canada totaled approximately $240 million.
The sale forms part of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s plan to focus on its strategic priorities in developing its pipeline and new product opportunities in ten disease areas of significant unmet medical need. In December 2004, the company signed a definitive agreement to sell its cancer drugs distribution subsidiary Oncology Therapeutics Network to the private equity arm of JP Morgan Chase & Co.