Following Up on Bristol-Myers Squibb's Restructuring Plans, Company Makes Move to Shift 1,250 Workers Out of Hopewell Township Site

Following Up on Bristol-Myers Squibb's Restructuring Plans, Company to Shift 1,250 Workers Out of N.J. Site March 3, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

HOPEWELL, N.J. – In October, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a reorganization plan of its research and development group. Part of that restructuring will include the closure of two sites in Hopewell Township by 2020–a move that could displace up to 1,250 employees.

BMS announced its decision to close its 433-acre campus in December. Many of those 1,250 jobs will be shifted to other BMS facilities in New Jersey and Boston, Central Jersey reported this morning. At the time of the announcement regarding the Hopewell site, BMS spokesperson Lisa McCormick Lavery told NJ.com that the closure of the facility is driven by a company desire to “co-locate our teams and really create a much more efficient and effective workstyle within those buildings.” She said the move is intended to simplify the workflow and integrate BMS R&D teams as the company focuses on the development of treatments for serious diseases.

BMS has been operating out of the Hopewell site since1997. It’s been used for R&D purposes as well as for an administration center.

In October, Bristol-Myers said it would revamp its R&D units following the unexpected failure of Opdivo as a monotherapy for a “broad patient population” in patients with untreated advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The company said its plans includes the implementation of a “more agile R&D organization” and “streamlined operations and realigned manufacturing capabilities that broaden biologics capabilities to reflect current and future portfolio.”

While BMS looks for ways to dispose of the property, Hopewell leaders will look to find something to quickly use that site, as BMS provided approximately 5.9 percent of the township’s tax base, Central Jersey reported.

BMS is also trying to sell property in Connecticut, but recent zoning changes stymied the company’s plan to sell to a boarding school. Employees from the Wallingford, Conn. site are being shifted to its Boston facility among others across the country.

Although BMS is leaving Connecticut and the Hopewell, N.J. site, the company is making investments in other R&D sites, including a new research-and-development building in Lawrenceville, N.J. and upgrades to support biologics development in New Brunswick, N.J. The company is also developing a state-of-the-art research facility in Cambridge, Mass.

Since January, the company has seen its stock prices drop by about 15 percent and $50 billion in market cap. BMS has gone from the fourth most valuable pharmaceutical company in the United States to the ninth. The company has been the subject of takeover rumors for large cap pharmas. If BMS is a target, any company would have to be willing to plunk down $90 billion or more for BMS. Four companies have been rumored to be potential suitors, including Pfizer , Gilead Sciences , Novartis AG and Roche . Some analysts have dismissed the idea that Pfizer is a serious candidate due to price and pipeline issues.

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