By Michael Erman
(Reuters) – Drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb said on Thursday its fourth quarter sales and earnings had fallen, hurt by lower sales of its blockbuster cancer drug Revlimid as it faced competition from generic versions in the United States.
Sales in the quarter fell to $11.41 billion from $11.99 billion a year earlier. Sales of Revlimid, which began facing generic competition in the United States earlier in 2022, fell 32% to $2.26 billion from $3.33 billion a year before.
Still, sales were better than analysts, expecting a sharper drop in Revlimid sales, had forecast. Analysts had forecast $11.2 billion in fourth quarter sales, including $1.89 billion from Revlimid, according to Refinitiv data.
Bristol Myers Chief Financial Officer David Elkins said that, excluding the effect of foreign exchange, sales had grown 3% in 2022.
“This is the first year of generic (competition for Revlimid) and everybody wanted to see if we could grow through the year. We did that,” Elkins said in an interview.
The drugmaker sold $2.69 billion of its blood thinner Eliquis and $2.22 billion of its cancer immunotherapy Opdivo in the quarter, up 1% and 11% over a year earlier, respectively.
The company said it had earned $1.82 per share in the quarter, down from $1.84 a share last year. Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn $1.72 per share.
Bristol Myers said it expected to earn $7.95 to $8.25 a share in 2023 on revenue it expected to increase by around 2% from 2022 sales of $46.16 billion. Analysts had forecast 2023 earnings of $7.99 a share on sales of $47.15 billion.
The company expects Revlimid sales to fall to $6.5 billion from $9.98 billion last year, slightly below analyst forecasts.
(Reporting by Michael Erman; Editing by Bradley Perrett)
