BMS profits buoyant after Mead Johnson jettisoned
pharmafile | February 1, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | 2009 financials, BMS, Mead Johnson
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s have revealed continued strong sales of the anti-blood clotting treatment Plavix and the antipsychotic Abilify and a huge increase in profits thanks to the divestment of nutritional business unit Mead Johnson.
Net income reached $8 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $1.24 billion in the previous year, which was helped by a gain of $7.2 billion from the spin off of the nutritional business.
Overall sales increased 11% to $5.03 billion, led by Plavix which climbed 10% to $1.62 billion, while Abilify increased its sales by 17% to $707 million.
In the company’s HIV and Hepatitis franchise, sales were also up. HIV treatments Sustiva and Reyataz rose 19% and 18% respectively, while hepatitis B treatment Baraclude rose by 39% to $212 million.
Among the company’s newer drugs, leukaemia treatment Sprycel increased sales by 38% to $119 million, while rheumatoid arthritis drug Orencia rose 30% to $162 million.
The news was less encouraging for BMS’s new type II diabetes treatment, Onglyza which it co-markets with AstraZeneca. The drug earned just $4 million, down from $20 million in the third quarter.
But the company played down the modest sales, saying it was too early to pass judgement on its performance.
Nevertheless chief executive James Cornelius said the company was working with AstraZeneca on ways to “improve Onglyza’s growth trajectory”.
The company has submitted the drug for use in a fixed dose combination with metformin extended release tablets.
Sales of cancer treatment Erbitux were also down, falling 8% to $167 million, attributed to falling demand from physicians in the wider colorectal cancer market.
Chief executive James Cornelius said: “[By] fundamentally transforming our company over the past year, we were able to grow our key franchises, launch new medicines and indications, advance a diverse, differentiated, robust pipeline”.
BMS has also managed to “embed productivity into our corporate DNA”, he added.
Cornelius also dismissed rumours that BMS was open to takeover approaches, and conversely said that it had “$10 billion of real cash in the bank” that it would use to acquire further small- to medium-sized acquisitions.
This is part of the company’s ‘String of Pearls’ strategy of creating a series of semi-autonomous R&D units which it believes will be the most productive and flexible model.
In its late-stage pipeline, BMS has belatacept, a novel kidney transplantation biologic drug. The company also expects to submit Apixaban for the prevention of venous thromboembolism in the first half of this year.
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