Celebrating the Science That Transforms Patients' Lives

By Samit Hirawat, M.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Global Drug Development

At BMS, we translate big ideas to scientific advances that transform patients’ lives by asking good questions, learning from experiments, leading clinical trials, and listening to patients at every step of the way. We believe it is critical to seek insights from people impacted by the diseases we are researching. Across our four therapeutic areas of Oncology, Immunology, Hematology and Cardiovascular, our researchers ask core questions that pave the way for breakthrough medicines that help patients—from diagnosis to survivorship.

Those questions—and scientific discoveries—matter for people around the world:

• In Oncology, we have pioneered breakthrough medicines that have changed survival expectations for patients with solid tumor cancers.
• In Hematology, we’re advancing blood cancer treatments that have transformational potential.
• In Immunology, our scientists are pursuing pathbreaking science with the goal of delivering meaningful solutions that help relieve the burdens of immune-mediated diseases.
• In Cardiovascular, we are taking a translational approach to drug discovery and development - subtyping patient populations to identify targeted therapeutics by expanding the use of biomarkers and real-world data to better design trials and determine which patients are most likely to benefit.

As we move from big ideas to scientific advances, we listen to and learn from the patients we serve. This week, we reflect alongside our scientists and patients at our seventh annual Global Patient Week. And all year, we learn from and listen to patients. Through conversation, learning and listening, we better understand our own science and its impact for patients, their families and communities.

We also host and give time for employees to engage with an immersive education series throughout the week that ensures everyone in the organization, regardless of business function or role, understands the medical conditions that impact our patients and the scientific prowess we bring to serving them. We have the honor of hearing the unique perspectives of patients who live with ulcerative colitis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and multiple myeloma, among others. From their stories, we can better understand how our science transforms lives.

We are committed to the complex, time-consuming process of discovering and testing novel drug compounds because they bring new hope.Samit Hirawat, Executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer Additionally, we have to understand the impact our studies have on patients’ lives and entire healthcare systems. BMS recently launched Patient Expert Engagement Resource (PEER) to embed the patient voice at every stage. We engage patient advocates throughout the entire drug development and commercialization process—one of the first such processes at a biopharmaceutical company.

I have a personal passion for the patient voice and am incredibly proud to have been part of the development of this program.

Our vision to transform patients’ lives inspires us every day. We are pursuing 50+ compounds in development and studying over 40 disease areas. We are committed to the complex, time-consuming process of discovering and testing novel drug compounds because they bring new hope.

During this year’s Global Patient Week and beyond, I am proud of our teams who continue to learn alongside patients, and who will use science to transform patients’ lives for years to come.