Bristol-Myers Squibb Essay Example for Free

Bristol-Myers Squibb Essay In my opinion Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis seek a settlement rather than let the patent infringement case go to trial because Bristol-Myers Squibb fail to disclose the oral side deal with Apotex and its false certification to the FTC. Going to trial would have cost Bristol-Myers a great deal of money and severe penalties from the FTC. Bristol-Myers knew before hand that the FTC opposes agreements that restricted the introduction of generic drugs which could be anti-competitive. Bristol- Myers was hoping that it could have pursued a settlement with Apotex subjected to FTC approval and delay the launch of Apotex generic drug until its patent expire. Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis should have attempted to pay Apotex to prevent it from launching the generic drug. It seems that BMS only entered the agreement because they felt that Apotex could not get approval. BMS offered Apotex $60 million break-up fee if the agreement was rejected by the FTC (Baron, 2010). To offer such a high break-up fee meant that BMS was very certain of the denial by the antitrust. The deal offered was to prevent Apotex from launching their version of plavix. The strategy exerted by Sherman of Apotex was considered to be great judgment call on his part as well as the business. I believe he acted ethically in his strategy and negotiated terms that would benefit his business. He performed extensive research and found many distributors who wanted to purchase Plavix at very low and reasonable cost. On August 8th Apotex launched its generic Drug. Sherman states that, â€Å"There should be no mistake that our decision to launch a generic of this blockbuster product at risk is a testament to our commitment to patients, consumers and taxpayers (Baron, 2010). Because he was a good business man he made sure that the product was on the market and sales were soaring. I felt that the FTC and the state attorneys general should have rejected the agreements. Companies must conduct business ethically at all times and not defraud others because of greed. The price that Bristol-Myers paid was fair and it teaches other businesses not to practice business in the matter that they did. Interference from other parties can cause bad decisions to be made also in others opinion. Maybe BMS could have won if it wasn’t up to the attorney general rejecting the proposal. Sometimes, some situations are best left up to the courts to decide. Bristol-Myers Squibb violated the deferred-prosecution agreement. The agreement stated that Bristol-Myers agreed to two years exemplary conduct and supervision from an independent federal monitor. Refusing to pay the money lead to even more question and apparent that they really wanted to defraud Apotex. In September 2006, Lacey instructed BMS to fire CEO Dolan because of his bad judgment.