We're a little over a year away from Bristol-Myers Squibb
Well, in as good a shape as a company can be facing the loss of a third of total sales.
It's going to be tough for newly launched drugs to make up for the $1.7 billion per quarter that Bristol and marketing partner sanofi-aventis
Not every new drug is on fire. Sales of diabetes treatment Onglyza and its sister Kombiglyze increased 800%, but that's just a factor of the slow start the franchise had. The drugs still only combined to sell $81 million in the first quarter, a far cry from Merck's
While Bristol still has Plavix, it's ramping up sales of other drugs and ramping down costs in anticipation of the loss of Plavix. The company's jogging along on an upward path. Sales were up 4% year over year as were adjusted earnings.
The real key to whether Bristol can make the transition successfully will be the drugs in its advanced pipeline. Melanoma treatment Yervoy was approved in the U.S. last month. Blood thinner Eliquis, which Bristol is developing with Pfizer
None are likely to reach the multibillion-dollar levels that Plavix has obtained, but combined -- and with the help of some other drugs in late-stage testing -- they should be able to make up for the loss.
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