BMY Bristol Myers Squibb Co

By Anne Steele 

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. on Wednesday said Chief Executive Giovanni Caforio will add the chairman title this spring, succeeding Lamberto Andreotti, who will retire.

The switch, which will be effective at the May 2 shareholder meeting, marks the final exit of one of the leaders who helped transform the pharmaceutical company into an immunotherapy pioneer.

Dr. Caforio, 51 years old, took the helm from Mr. Andreotti, 66, who had been CEO for five years, in May 2015.

Mr. Andreotti led Bristol's move into immunotherapies, starting with its $2.4 billion purchase of Medarex and then winning approval, in 2011, of skin-cancer immunotherapy Yervoy. Opdivo, a second immunotherapy, was initially approved to treat melanoma in 2014 and has since been expanded to treat patients whose lung cancer worsened after trying chemotherapy, as well as patients with kidney cancer and a type of lymphoma.

A trained physician, Dr. Caforio joined Bristol in 2000 as general manager of its Italy business and rose through the company's ranks, in part by leading commercialization of the two cancer drugs.

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2016 10:03 ET (15:03 GMT)

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