By Michael Erman
April 30 (Reuters) – Bristol Myers Squibb reported a first-quarter profit that beat Wall Street expectations on Thursday, helped by better-than-expected growth of blood thinner Eliquis as well as newer cancer medicines.
The drugmaker posted adjusted earnings of $1.58 per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ average expectation of $1.42, according to LSEG data. Revenue rose 3% from a year earlier to $11.49 billion, above expectations of about $10.9 billion.
Eliquis, marketed in partnership with Pfizer, generated $4.14 billion in quarterly sales, up 16% from a year earlier. Chief Commercialization Officer Adam Lenkowsky said demand for the blood thinner remains strong, with new prescription share surpassing 75%.
“We’re really pleased with what we’re seeing from Eliquis,” Lenkowsky said in an interview, adding that the drug’s strong performance should support growth later in the year.
Growth from newer cancer medicines helped offset steep declines in older products facing generic competition, such as one-time top seller Revlimid, a blood cancer treatment.
However, RBC Capital markets analyst Trung Huynh said the beat was outweighed by mixed performance of some growth drivers, such as anemia treatment Rebonzyl.
Huynh added “we think 2026 quarters matter less than 2H26 catalysts,” with the potential approval of a next-generation cancer drug, late-stage study results from milvexian for irregular heartbeats and Cobenfy in Alzheimer’s agitation.
Sales from Bristol Myers’ growth portfolio rose 12% to $6.23 billion, accounting for more than half of total revenue.
Cell therapy Breyanzi delivered $411 million in the quarter, up 56%, while Camzyos nearly doubled to $314 million.
Bristol Myers sold $2.15 billion of its original formulation of Opdivo and brought in another $163 million for the subcutaneously injected version called Opdivo Qvantig, launched last year. That compares with sales of $2.27 billion for Opdivo and $9 million for Qvantig in the year-ago quarter.
Sales of Opdualag, which combines Opdivo with a different immunotherapy, rose 17% to $295 million.
Revlimid sales fell 63% to $349 million as generic competition deepened.
Bristol Myers reaffirmed its 2026 outlook, forecasting revenue of $46.0 billion to $47.5 billion and adjusted earnings of $6.05 to $6.35 per share, with results expected to trend toward the high end of the range.
Analysts are estimating revenue of $47.1 billion on earnings of $6.27 per share.
Chief Financial Officer David Elkins said ongoing cost-cutting efforts are supporting investment in newer medicines and dividend growth.
The company’s cost-cutting program had already delivered $1 billion out of a planned $2 billion in total savings by the end of 2025. Elkins said Bristol is on target to hit the full $2 billion by the end of next year.
(Reporting by Michael Erman in New Jersey and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru)
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