Bristol Myers Squibb on Thursday trimmed its expectations for sales of its newer medicines, predicting sales will grow more slowly over the next several years than it previously forecast.
The pharmaceutical company now anticipates its new product portfolio to bring more than $10 billion in revenue by 2026, adjusted from a prior guidance of between $10 billion and $13 billion in 2025.
Bristol Myers shared the update alongside third quarter earnings that showed a 2% decline in revenue compared to same period in 2022, largely due to sliding sales of the company’s cancer drug Revlimid. The widely used multiple myeloma medicine now faces generic competitors in the U.S., as well as Europe.
New drugs like the anemia treatment Reblozyl, heart therapy Camzyos and multiple sclerosis medicine Zeposia are meant to cushion that financial blow, so the guidance change Thursday is a notable adjustment. Shares in the company fell by more than 4% Thursday morning.
While investors were expecting declines from Revlimid, Bristol Myers’ new product sales came in below analyst forecasts. In particular, sales of Reblozyl, Camzyos and cancer cell therapy Abecma missed expectations.
Abecma, which had 13% lower sales between July and September than the same period last year, faces competition from a rival cell therapy from Johnson & Johnson and Legend Biotech. Bristol Myers has also had challenges with manufacturing the drug, which the company said it has made progress resolving.
Third quarter sales of Sotyku, a new psoriasis pill approved late last year, surpassed consensus forecasts, according to a client note from Leerink Partners’ David Risinger.
Still, Christopher Boerner, Bristol Myers’ commercial head, told investors on a call Thursday that, while sales of Camzyos and Sotyktu have risen, growth has been slower than the company anticipated. Abecma and Zeposia, meanwhile, have “lagged expectations.”
“The commercial team is laser focused on building on the momentum of performance in the quarter and, importantly, accelerating performance where necessary,” Boerner said. “We are also further increasing our investment behind selective brands to ensure performance accelerates.”
In addition to declining sales of Revlimid, Bristol Myers also faces the threat of U.S. government negotiation on the Medicare price of it and Pfizer’s blood thinner Eliquis. Bristol Myers has sued to block the government’s new program, which was put in place by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Thursday’s earnings call was the last for Bristol Myers CEO Giovanni Caforio. The executive will retire on Nov. 1, handing leadership of the company to Boerner.
One of Caforio’s last acts as CEO was Bristol Myers’ proposed $4.8 billion acquisition of cancer drug developer Mirati Therapeutics, announced earlier this month.
“We’re as confident as we have been on the long-term growth profile of the company,” said Boerner. “The focus right now is around executing on the commercial side, continuing to move the pipeline forward and ensuring that we’ve got the right focus on bringing innovation in externally with business development.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with executive commentary from Bristol Myers’ earnings call Thursday.