Based on this approach, we purposefully source only a percentage of our pipeline internally and focus significant efforts on partners who are critical to our future and to patients. This requires a creative and broad-minded outlook to finding external innovation, one that is rooted in collaboration. This focus on collaboration is built into our R&D strategy and culture. This same focus is a critical component of our approach to working with a range of multi-disciplinary experts from outside of Bristol Myers Squibb — scientists, academics, physicians, data experts, advocates and more. We are stronger through these partnerships, better able to deliver on our mission of discovering, developing and delivering innovative medicines to patients with serious disease.
In fact, today Bristol Myers Squibb has more than 100 active partnerships and collaborations with academic research centers, laboratories, clinicians, clinical trials organizations, and pharmaceutical and biotech firms around the world.
This results in a greater influx of new ideas and scientific hypotheses that help accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of potentially transformational medicines to patients. Our partners improve our work, they help us think differently and challenge the status quo of science. And we, in turn, help them do the same.