BMS brushes off impact of Medicare price negotiations on Eliquis, as newer products drive growth
26 Jul 2024
Bristol Myers Squibb on Friday sounded an upbeat tone on the company’s ability to deal with Medicare price setting that is set to come into force in the US on its topseller Eliquis. CEO Chris Boerner noted that the drugmaker has received the final price from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for Eliquis, which will be made public on September 1 before coming into effect at the start of 2026.
"Based on having seen the price, we're very confident in our ability to navigate the impact of the [Inflation Reduction Act] on Eliquis," Boerner said. The comments were made alongside Bristol Myers Squibb’s second-quarter financial results, which saw sales of Eliquis climb 7% to $3.4 billion – in line with forecasts – including a 10% uptick in the US to $2.5 billion.
The company also benefited from sales of new products, including anaemia treatment Reblozyl (+82% to $425 million) and heart drug Camzyos ($139 million), which combined brought in $5.6 billion, representing growth of 18%. Meanwhile, Opdivo generated quarterly revenue of $2.4 billion, up 11%. Overall sales in the quarter lifted 9% to $12.2 billion, topping estimates of $11.5 billion, while profit was $1.7 billion, down from $2.1 billion in the prior year.
Guidance lifted
“Our second-quarter results reflect progress against our strategy to position BMS for long-term, sustainable growth,” Boerner remarked. For the full year, the drugmaker now expects sales growth to be at the upper end of its earlier low single-digit range, while earnings per share are forecast to be between $0.60 and $0.90, adjusted from a prior range of $0.40 and $0.70.
JP Morgan analyst Christopher Schott said that sales of Bristol Myers Squibb’s newer drugs are encouraging “and continued outperformance here would be well received by investors.” The company’s second-quarter financial print sent shares up nearly 8% on Friday.
Bristol Myers Squibb is in the midst of a cost-cutting initiative that aims to realise savings of $1.5 billion by the end of 2025, with two-thirds of this coming from R&D. The programme, which will impact around 2200 jobs, is designed to reduce management layers in an effort to speed decision making, along with pipeline rationalisation, which at the time had already hit 12 programmes.
One asset goes, another succeeds
On Friday, Bristol Myers Squibb disclosed another asset that is being discontinued, the bispecific T-cell engager alnuctamab, which targets BCMA and CD3. The company had only opened a Phase III study of the drug in January in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, but withdrew the study in May and has now discontinued further development. The move comes amid an increasingly crowded market for anti-BCMA agents, including bispecifics and CAR-Ts (for more, see Spotlight On: How emerging MM agents are reshaping the treatment landscape).
Bristol Myers Squibb on Friday also unveiled a late-stage success, with the anti-IL-13 cendakimab meeting both primary endpoints in a study of patients with eosinophilic esophagitis. Results showed that the drug demonstrated statistically significant reductions versus placebo in symptoms and esophageal eosinophil counts after 24 weeks of treatment.
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