Having gobbled up Celgene, the Bristol-Myers CEO ducks questions about his key rival
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In his first appearance since Bristol-Myers Squibb completed its takeover last week of Celgene, Giovanni Caforio offered a predictably upbeat prognosis for the newly combined company but sidestepped questions about rival Merck’s ongoing dominance of immunotherapy, a key area that has been tinged with disappointment for the poker-faced executive.
“I think we’re just at the beginning of a long journey. We’ve demonstrated immune-oncology is extremely effective and changing the standard of care across a large number of tumors. … We are far from the end,” the Bristol-Myers chief executive officer told the crowd at the STAT Summit, an industry conference sponsored by STAT and held at MIT.
