SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
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FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported) June 16, 1995
BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY
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(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware 1-1136 22-079-0350
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(State or other jurisdiction (Commission (IRS Employer
of incorporation) File Number) Identification No.)
345 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10154
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(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant's telephone number, including area code (212) 546-4000
Not Applicable
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(Former name or address, if changed since last report)
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Item 5. Other Events.
Legal Proceedings--Breast Implant Litigation.
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See the attached press release (Exhibit 99.1)
relating to the pending settlement of breast implant product liability
claims referred to in Registrant's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended December 31, 1994.
Item 7. Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(a), (b) None.
(c) The following exhibit is filed herewith:
Exhibit 99.1 - Copy of the Registrant's press
release relating to the Registrant's breast implant
litigation with attachment containing Judge
Pointer's message to class members.
SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be
signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.
BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY
by
/s/ Alice C. Brennan
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Name: Alice C. Brennan
Title: Vice President and
Secretary
Dated: June 19, 1995.
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Exhibit Index
Exhibit 99.1 - Copy of the Registrant's press release
relating to the Registrant's breast implant
litigation with attachment containing Judge
Pointer's message to class members.
Exhibit 99.1
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
P.O. Box 4000,
Princeton, NJ 08543-4000 609/252-4000
Pharmaceuticals Consumer Products
Nutritional Products
Medical Devices
CONTACT: Jane Kramer
(609) 252-5185/Office
(609) 448-2233/Home
(New York, NY -- June 16, 1995) Bristol-Myers Squibb
said that Federal Judge Sam C. Pointer made another in a series of
reports about sampling of claims on the breast implant global
settlement. See statement attached.
The company will participate in discussions about a
renegotiated global settlement on breast implant claims as the Judge
requested. The company also said it will consider a reasonable
compromise, but will not simply add more money to cover claims which
have no medical basis.
"We have great sympathy for any woman who is truly
ill. But, extensive scientific evidence on breast implants clearly
indicates that implants are not the cause of these health problems,"
the company stated.
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Hello. This is Ann Cochran, Claims Administrator.
This message, recorded on June 14th, takes about 6 or 7
minutes. A copy of this message can be downloaded by those
with a computer communications program and modem by dialing
1-713-951-9420. A written copy can be requested by calling
1-800-600-0311.
Settlement renegotiations, searching for ways to
increase the funds provided for the Current Disease Compensation
Program and exploring other possibilities for restructuring some
aspects of the settlement, are continuing on almost a daily basis and
have intensified in the light of Dow Corning's bankruptcy and the
court's statistical study of claims under the Current Disease
Compensation Program. The court has authorized the Claims Office to
make available at this time the following information from its study:
As of June 1, 1995, the Claims Office received over
440,000 registrations. Approximately 248,500 were filed by domestic
class members by the September 16, 1994, deadline for making claims
under the Current Disease Compensation Program. Based on an analysis
of about 3,000 of these registrations, the court estimates that over
96,000 domestic registrants timely submitted a claim under the Current
Disease Compensation Program with some supporting medical
documentation.
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Under the criteria provided in the existing
settlement, almost 20,000 of these domestic claims would likely be
approved without any further documentation or supplementation, subject
only to possible additional review under the procedures for
fraud-detection. The court estimates that an additional 60,000
domestic claimants would, under the criteria of the existing
settlement, be notified of "minor" deficiencies in their claims or
supporting documentation, and would be given a period of time to
correct these deficiencies in order to qualify under the Current
Disease Compensation Program. Claims with minor deficiencies not
timely corrected, together with the claims having more serious
deficiencies, would be carried forward for consideration in later
years under the Ongoing Disease Compensation Program.
Although many anticipated some "racheting" (or
reduction in grid amounts shown in the settlement notice), few
expected the number of approved claims to be as high as these
statistical estimates indicate. The court has concluded that a severe
racheting of grid amounts will occur if current claims are evaluated
under the existing criteria and if funding of the Current Disease
Compensation Program remains at its present level, which is $1.2
billion. At this funding level, the court estimates that, if none of
the
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minor deficiencies were corrected, the approved claims would be paid
at approximately 12% to 16% of the amounts shown on the grid,
depending on the disease and severity level approved. The court
estimates that, if all minor deficiencies were corrected, these
payment percentages would drop to less than 5% of the scheduled grid
amounts. One would expect actual payment percentages for current
claims to fall somewhere between these limits, depending on how many
claims with minor deficiencies were timely corrected.
As indicated, the parties are actively exploring
various ways to provide a satisfactory settlement in the light of the
large number of registrants and claimants. The court has concluded
that these negotiations have a greater chance of success if further
details from its statistical study are not made publicly available at
this time. Therefore, in hope of enhancing a satisfactory settlement,
the court has decided to delay publishing its study until after the
parties have been given some additional time to pursue their
negotiations.
The Claims Office is continuing to devote its best
efforts to evaluate all current claims just as quickly as possible. We
must examine individually each of the approximately 248,500 domestic
registrations filed by September 16, 1994, and then - for the almost
100,000
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current domestic claims - we must carefully evaluate each claim and
its supporting medical documentation, a process that, on average,
takes about 1-1/2 to 2 hours per claim. We are also about to start
reviewing the approximately 11,000 foreign registrations that might
include timely current claims. To reduce the time needed to review
almost 260,000 registrations and 100,000 claims, the Claims Office
expects this week to finalize arrangements that will almost quadruple
the number of persons involved in the review process. As earlier
announced, we expect the review process to be completed in the first
half of 1996, but we will be attempting to complete the reviews in
less time if possible. The court has indicated that its decision
concerning the contents of a second opt-out notice (or, indeed,
whether the settlement should go forward at all) will be made in the
next several months, taking into account the results of the settlement
renegotiations, but without waiting for all claims to be reviewed. We
appreciate very much the comments of those who have expressed their
patience, their understanding, and their encouragement.
