Drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY-US) reported slightly better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Friday, buoyed by higher sales of its blood thinner Eliquis and cancer drug Opdivo; but It said it would no longer provide a sales forecast for 2022 due to fierce competition from overseas generic drug Revlimid for blood cancer.
Revenue in the last quarter rose 5 percent from a year earlier to $11.65 billion. Analysts had forecast revenue of $11.4 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Profit for the quarter was $1.28 billion, or 59 cents a share, down from $2.02 billion, or 89 cents a share, last year. Excluding one-time items, the company said it earned $1.96 a share, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.91 a share.
Sales of Revlimid, which lost some of its patent protection this year, fell less sharply in the first quarter than expected. Sales of the drug were about $2.8 billion, compared with analysts’ forecast of $2.53 billion.
Still, Bristol-Myers Squibb lowered its full-year sales forecast for Revlimid by $500 million to $9 billion to $9.5 billion. Sales of the drug in 2021 will be about $12.8 billion.
CFO David Elkins said U.S. generic rivals saw slow uptake of the blood cancer drug in the first quarter, but expects competition to intensify in the second Faster than we expected, which is why we lowered our forecast for Revlimid.”
Eliquis sales rose 11% to $3.21 billion in the quarter; Opdivo sales rose 12% to $1.92 billion.
The company also cut its full-year earnings forecast by 21 cents to a range of $7.44 to $7.74 a share.
