primarily through a REMS program. The inability to bring a product to market or a significant delay in the expected approval and related launch date of a new product could negatively impact our revenues and earnings. In addition, if certain acquired pipeline programs are canceled or we believe their commercial prospects have been reduced, we may recognize material non-cash impairment charges for those programs. Finally, losing key molecules and intermediaries or our compound library through a natural or man-made disaster or act of sabotage could negatively impact the product development cycle. 

## Certain novel approaches to the treatment of diseases, such as chimeric antigen receptor ( “ CAR ” ) T cell therapy, may present significant challenges and risks for us. 

The development of novel approaches for the treatment of diseases, such as our acquisition in November 2019 of Celgene’s and Juno’s CAR T cell therapy programs, including Breyanzi (liso-cel) and ide-cel, presents many new challenges and risks due to the unique nature of genetic modification of patient cells ex vivo using certain viruses to reengineer these cells to ultimately treat diseases, including obtaining regulatory approval from U.S. FDA and other regulatory agencies that have limited experience with the development of cellular therapies involving genetic modification of patient cells; developing and deploying consistent and reliable processes, while limiting contamination, for engineering a patient’s cells ex vivo and infusing genetically modified cells back into the patient; developing processes for the safe administration of cellular therapies, including long-term follow-up for patients receiving cellular therapies; and sourcing additional clinical and, if approved, commercial supplies for the materials used to manufacture and process our potential CAR T products. The use of reengineered cells as a potential cancer treatment is a recent development and may not be broadly accepted by the regulatory, patient or medical communities. Further, we may not be able to satisfactorily establish the safety and efficacy or the reliability of these therapies through health authority approval, or demonstrate the potential advantages and side effects compared to existing and future therapies. Regulatory requirements governing gene and cell therapy products have changed frequently and may continue to change in the future. Furthermore, certain payment models could impact the interest of appropriate treatment sites in administering CAR T cell therapies, thereby limiting patient access. To date, only a few products that involve the genetic modification of patient cells have been approved for commercial sale. Moreover, the safety profiles of cellular therapies may adversely influence public perception and may adversely influence the willingness of subjects to participate in clinical trials, or if approved, of physicians and payers to subscribe to these novel treatment approaches. If we fail to overcome these and other challenges, or if significant adverse events are reported from similar therapies, our development of these novel treatment approaches may be hampered or delayed, which could adversely affect our future anticipated revenues and/or profitability related to these therapeutic programs. 

## We face intense competition from other manufacturers. 

BMS is dependent on the market access, uptake and expansion for marketed brands, new product introductions, new indications, product extensions and co-promotional activities with alliance partners, to deliver future growth. Competition is keen and includes (i) lower-priced generics and increasingly aggressive generic commercialization tactics, (ii) new competitive products entering the market, particularly in IO, (iii) lower prices for other companies’ products, real or perceived superior efficacy (benefit) or safety (risk) profiles or other differentiating factors, (iv) technological advances and patents attained by our competitors, (v) clinical study results from our products or a competitor’s products that affect the value proposition for our products, (vi) business combinations among our competitors and major third-party payers and (vii) competing interests for external partnerships to develop and bring new products to markets. If we are unable to compete successfully against our competitors’ products in the marketplace, this could have a material negative impact on our revenues and earnings. 

## We could experience difficulties, delays and disruptions in the manufacturing, distribution and sale of our products. 

Our product supply and related patient access has been, and could in the future be, negatively impacted by difficulties, delays and disruptions in the manufacturing, distribution and sale of our products. Some of the difficulties, delays and disruptions include: (i) product seizures or recalls or forced closings of manufacturing plants; (ii) our failure, or the failure of any of our vendors or suppliers, to comply with cGMP and other applicable regulations or quality assurance guidelines that could lead to manufacturing shutdowns, product shortages or delays in product manufacturing; (iii) manufacturing, quality assurance/quality control, supply problems or governmental approval delays; (iv) the failure of a supplier, including sole source or single source suppliers, to provide us with the necessary raw materials, supplies or finished goods within a reasonable timeframe and with required quality; (v) the failure of a third-party manufacturer to supply us with bulk active or finished product on time; (vi) construction or regulatory approval delays for new facilities or the expansion of existing facilities, including those intended to support future demand for our biologics products, such as Opdivo; (vii) the failure to meet new and emerging regulations requiring products to be tracked throughout the distribution channels using unique identifiers to verify their authenticity in the supply chain; (viii) other manufacturing or distribution issues, including limits to manufacturing capacity and changes in the types of products produced, such as biologics, physical limitations or other business interruptions; and (ix) disruption in supply chain continuity, including from natural disasters (such as hurricanes), global disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, acts of war or terrorism or other external factors over which we have no control impacting one or more of our facilities or at a critical supplier. 

