FILE PHOTO: The Bristol Myers Squibb research and development center at Cambridge Crossing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Dec. 27, 2023.
Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Bristol Myers Squibb on Thursday beat first-quarter estimates and hiked its revenue and profit guidance for the year, as the drugmaker cuts costs.
The company now expects 2025 revenue to come in between $45.8 billion and $46.8 billion, up from a previous outlook of around $45.5 billion. Bristol Myers also expects full-year adjusted earnings of $6.70 to $7 per share, which compares to its prior forecast of $6.55 to $6.85 per share.
Notably, the company said its guidance revisions include the estimated impact of current tariffs on U.S. products shipped to China. But they do not account for any of President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported into the U.S., Bristol Myers said.
China is a critical market for Bristol Myers Squibb. The company has previously outlined its “China 2030 Strategy,” which is a plan to bring more of its medicines to the nation to address unmet medical needs in areas like gastric cancer and include more Chinese patients in clinical trials.
The company said the outlook hike reflects strength in the company’s portfolio of newer drug brands, and better-than-anticipated first-quarter sales from its legacy portfolio of older medications.
The results come as Bristol Myers Squibb moves to slash $2 billion in expenses by the end of 2027, which is on top of $1.5 billion in planned cost cuts by the end of this year.
It also comes just days after Bristol Myers Squibb’s recently approved schizophrenia drug, Cobenfy, disappointed in a large clinical trial, leading some Wall Street analysts to substantially lower their multi-billion dollar sales forecasts for the treatment.
The company is banking on Cobenfy and other so-called growth portfolio drugs to offset the loss in revenue from top-selling treatments slated to lose exclusivity on the market, including its blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and cancer immunotherapy Opdivo.
Here is what Bristol Myers reported for the first quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.80 adjusted vs. $1.49 expected
- Revenue: $11.2 billion vs. $10.7 billion expected
Bristol Myers posted net income of $2.5 billion, or $1.20 per share, for the first quarter. That compares with a net loss of $11.9 billion, or a loss of $5.89 per share, for the year-earlier period.
Excluding certain items, it reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.80 for the quarter.
The pharmaceutical giant’s revenue fell 6% from the same period a year ago to $11.2 billion.
Eliquis booked $3.57 billion in sales for the quarter, down 4% from the year-ago period. That is above the $3.34 billion that analysts were expecting, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.
The blood thinner, which Bristol Myers shares with Pfizer, is expected to lose market exclusivity by 2028.
Sales of Eliquis could also take a hit in 2026, when a new negotiated price for the drug goes into effect for certain Medicare patients following negotiations with the federal government. Those price talks are a key provision of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The second round of negotiations targets 15 additional drugs and will set new prices that will go into effect in 2028. That includes the Bristol Myers medication Pomalyst, which is used to treat a blood cancer called multiple myeloma and a different cancer that develops in people with HIV.
Pomalyst brought in $658 million for the period, down 24% from the year-earlier period. Revlimid, a drug used to treat adults with multiple myeloma, took in $936 million in sales for the first quarter, down 44% from the same period a year ago.
Revenue from the company’s so-called growth portfolio was $5.56 billion for the first quarter, up 16% from the year-earlier period.
Opdivo brought in $2.27 billion in revenue for the first quarter, rising 9% from the year-earlier period. That is above analysts’ estimate of $2.16 billion for the quarter, StreetAccount said.
Meanwhile, Cobenfy booked $27 million in sales for the first quarter.
