About us

With an Australian presence dating back more than 70 years, Bristol Myers Squibb Australia is a longstanding contributor to Australia’s health and economy.

Some 300 employees are part of the team at BMS Australia, with just over half of the group located at the company’s headquarters in Mulgrave, a suburb of Melbourne.  

We play an integral part in Australian clinical research with a local and global impact – currently conducting 100+ trials.

We are an active member of Medicines Australia, the pharmaceutical industry body, and are committed to upholding the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct and maintaining transparency through regular disclosure of information.  Our values are rooted in a steadfast commitment to the highest standards of quality, uncompromising ethics, compliance and integrity.  They are central to who we are, what we do and how we do it.

The Bristol Myers Squibb company we know today has a proud heritage involving two companies – Bristol Myers and ER Squibb – that began operating more than 100 years ago.

Based in New York City, USA, the Bristol Myers company began in 1887 when two friends – William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers - founded a small manufacturing company that sold medicines directly to doctors. Even earlier, in 1858, industry pioneer Dr Edward Robinson Squibb formed a pharmaceutical company that would eventually bear his name for years to come, ER Squibb & Sons.

During World War II, both Bristol Myers and Squibb developed manufacturing processes to mass-produce penicillin. In the early 1960s, Bristol Myers developed its first anti-cancer medicine, which is still used for treatment today.

In 1989, Squibb and Bristol Myers merged, forming the modern company that is now known as Bristol Myers Squibb.

In Australia during 1967, the Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Harold Holt officially opened the company’s manufacturing plant in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park (known then as E.R Squibb and Sons Pty Ltd). The Australian company remained at this site until 2012, when the business shifted its headquarters to the current Mulgrave location.
 

We are proud of our company’s commitment to Inclusion & Diversity and the meaningful steps we are taking to drive equitable advancement and outcomes for all. Our collaborative efforts to foster inclusion require transparency across our organisation. We want our workforce, partners and patients to be aware of our culture of inclusion and the commitment we have for continued growth in service to our patients around the world.

In Australia, our People and Business Resource Groups (PBRGs) include:

PRIDE Alliance: PRIDE Alliance enhances Bristol Myers Squibb’s performance and reputation through a culture that empowers LGBTQ+ inclusion, awareness and engagement to grow our business, recruit top talent, nurture excellence and deliver the highest quality health outcomes. BMS Australia has received Bronze Accreditation by the Australian Workplace Equality Index's (AWEI) in recognition as an inclusive LGBTQ+ workplace. 

B-NOW: The BMS Network of Women (B-NOW) aims to drive business performance at BMS by implementing innovative solutions via external partnerships and engagements to meet the needs of our patients and communities, creating a competitive advantage.

Through these aligned global Inclusion & Diversity priorities and strategic initiatives, we will ensure that all women of BMS have opportunities to develop, advance, and be retained globally within a culture that prioritises this goal.

CLIMB (Cultivating Leadership and Innovation for Millennials and Beyond): CLIMB drives global business performance by creating a platform focused on talent development, connectivity and innovation by leveraging the energy and contributions of the next-generation workforce. 

PAN: Pan Asian Network (PAN) drives business results worldwide by promoting a workplace environment that fully values the contributions of Asian employees and helps the organisation deepen the understanding of Asian patients, customers and other stakeholders. 

Additionally, our Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group leads BMS Australia’s Reconciliation journey. Our vision for reconciliation is that Australia’s First Nations Peoples attain the same level of health care, and health outcomes, as other Australians.