Shares in pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) are up a little more than 11% over the past year.
The company posted third-quarter revenue of $11.2 billion, a decrease of 3%, with one culprit being the loss of exclusivity for one of its blockbuster drugs, Revlimid. The blood cancer therapy reported sales of $2.4 billion, down 28% year over year. Before the end of the decade, blood thinner Eliquis and immunology drug Opdivo will also face patent cliffs.
Fortunately for the healthcare company, there are three other potential blockbuster therapies waiting in the wings: Sotyktu, Abecma, and Opdualag. The company has had triple-digit growth over the past decade in revenue and earnings per share (EPS) and that doesn't seem likely to change, thanks to its newer therapies.
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Sotyktu could be a safer, more simple blockbuster
Sotyktu (deucravacitinib), a once-daily pill, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sept. 9 to treat moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. The drug also got a recent recommendation from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency for the same indication.
The recommendation will be reviewed by the European Commission, which could then approve it to be used in the European Union. It is an immunosuppressant that inhibits the allosteric tyrosine kinase 2 enzyme, seen in different kinds of inflammation. The company obtained the rights to the drug when it bought Celgene for $74 billion in 2019.
In less than a full month of sales, the drug pulled in $1 million in revenue. It is expected to challenge Otezla, made by Amgen as the lead drug to treat psoriasis. Bristol lists the drug's price at $6,164 for a 30-day supply.
If plaque psoriasis is all Sotyktu gets approved for, it still could be a potential blockbuster as a first-in-class therapy for the malady, which affects more than 8 million people in the United States, according to the National Psoriasis Foundation.
Sotyktu also is being seen as a treatment for other immune disorders, which would really add to its blockbuster potential. As it is, the drug could already be prescribed widely by doctors because its approval doesn't require patients to first try biologic drugs, making Sotyktu an option for previously untreated cases. Also, because the phase 3 study of Sotyktu didn't show any cardiovascular events, it doesn't contain a label warning such as is required of other JAK inhibitors, including Rinvoq, made by AbbVie, and Xeljanz, made by Pfizer.
Bristol certainly sees potential for the drug, as much as $4 billion in annual sales by 2030. It has it in a phase 3 study to treat psoriatic arthritis, and it is in phase 2 trials to treat Crohn's Disease, two different types of lupus, and ulcerative colitis.
Don't look past Abecma
Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) is the first FDA-approved cell-based gene therapy for multiple myeloma, a rare cancer where abnormal plasma cells build up in the bone marrow, causing tumors in bones. The drug, a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy, was approved in March 2021 as a fourth-line therapy for multiple myeloma patients. CAR T-cell therapies genetically modify a patient's own T-cells to recognize and attack cancer cells.
The therapy, which cost more than $400,000 per treatment, is on pace to pull in at least $350 million in revenue this year for Bristol. Its sales are split between Bristol and partner 2seventy bio. Abecma did $107 million in sales in the third quarter, up 51% year over year. Through nine months of its first full year, Abecma brought in $263 million in sales.
Abecma is in a phase 3 trial as a third-line setting to treat multiple myeloma.
Opdualag could take Opdivo's place
Cancer therapy Opdualag, an intravenous solution that's a combination of Bristol checkpoint inhibitor drugs -- Opdivo and Relatlimab -- was approved in March to treat metastatic melanoma.
In the short time since its launch, Opdualag has brought in $148 million in revenue (including $84 million in the third quarter), and the company has said it sees it having an annual revenue potential of $4 billion by 2029. It's possible the therapy could replace Opdivo in its many applications as Bristol said it is looking at the therapy to also treat lung, liver, and colorectal cancers.
In Opdualag's phase 3 trial for metastatic melanoma, it more than doubled the progression-free survival rate of patients compared to those just taking Opdivo. Opdualag is the first therapy to target two different immune checkpoints -- LAG-3 and PD-1.
