The Bristol Myers Squibb Research and Development Center at Cambridge Crossing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on Wednesday, December 27, 2023.
Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Bristol Myers Squibb on Thursday reported third-quarter earnings and sales that beat Wall Street expectations thanks to its blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and a drug portfolio that the company promises will drive long-term growth.
The pharmaceutical giant also raised its full-year sales forecast and expects sales to increase by around 5%. Bristol Myers previously said it forecast revenue growth in the “high end” of low single digits.
The company also raised its adjusted 2024 earnings forecast to 75 cents to 95 cents per share, up from a previous forecast of 60 cents to 90 cents per share.
The results come as Bristol Myers seeks to cut costs by $1.5 billion by the end of 2025 and put that money into key drug brands and research and development programs. The company said in April that this would include laying off more than 2,000 employees, shutting down some drug programs and consolidating its locations, among other things.
The company's shares rose more than 4% on Thursday.
Here's what Bristol Myers reported for the third quarter compared to Wall Street's expectations, based on an LSEG analyst survey:
- Earnings per share: $1.80 adjusted vs. $1.49 expected
- Revenue: $11.89 billion versus expected $11.28 billion
Bristol Myers had third-quarter net income of $1.21 billion, or 60 cents per share. By comparison, net income in the year-earlier period was $1.93 billion, or 93 cents per share.
Excluding certain items, the company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.80 for the quarter.
The pharmaceutical giant's sales rose 8% to $11.89 billion compared to the same period last year.
The increase is due to Eliquis and the company's so-called growth portfolio, which includes a cancer drug called Opdivo. However, sales were partially offset by leukemia drug Sprycel, which faces generic competition due to its loss of exclusivity.
The company is preparing to offset lost sales of top-selling drugs that will lose market exclusivity, including Eliquis, Opdivo and Revlimid, a blood cancer drug.
Sales of Eliquis could also take a hit in 2026 when a new price for the drug goes into effect for certain Medicare patients following negotiations with the federal government. The first round of these price talks, a key provision of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, concluded over the summer.
Notably, during the quarter, the Food and Drug Administration approved Bristol Myers Squibb's highly anticipated schizophrenia drug Cobenfy. It is the first novel treatment for the debilitating, chronic mental disorder in more than seven decades.
Eliquis, new drugs record growth
Eliquis reported revenue of $3 billion in the quarter, up 11% from the same period last year. That was above the $2.84 billion analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount estimates.
The blood thinner Bristol Myers shares Pfizeris expected to lose its market exclusivity by 2028.
Revlimid posted revenue of $1.41 billion, down 1% from the same period last year. That beat analysts' revenue expectations of $1.11 billion for the treatment, according to StreetAccount.
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Revenue from the company's growth portfolio was $5.8 billion in the third quarter, up 18% from the same period last year.
This was driven in part by higher demand for anemia drug Reblozyl, which brought in $447 million in the third quarter, up 80% from the same period last year. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected the treatment to bring in $435 million in sales.
Advanced melanoma treatment Opdualag, lymphoma treatment Breyanzi and Camzyos, a drug for certain heart diseases, also helped boost growth portfolio sales in the third quarter, the company said.
According to StreetAccount, Breyanzi and Camzyos posted revenue above analysts' expectations, while Opdualag fell short of estimates.
Opdivo posted third-quarter revenue of $2.36 billion, up 4% from the same period last year. This was below analysts' estimate of $2.41 billion for the quarter, according to StreetAccount.
Meanwhile, Abecma, a cell therapy for a rare blood cancer called multiple myeloma, posted revenue of $124 million in the quarter. Analysts had expected sales of $110 million.
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