NEW YORK – Bristol Myers Squibb on Thursday reported a 3 percent decline in overall revenues in the first quarter along with double-digit growth in sales of several precision oncology products.
Overall revenues for the three months ended March 31 were $11.34 billion compared to $11.65 billion in Q1 2022. At constant exchange rates, revenues declined 1 percent. The firm missed analysts' average revenue expectation of $11.49 billion for the quarter.
The overall revenue decrease was due to declining sales of its immunomodulatory blood cancer drug Revlimid (lenalidomide), which lost exclusivity in the US and internationally last year. However, several of BMS's precision oncology products saw double-digit sales growth in the quarter.
BMS's top-selling oncology drug, the checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab), recorded $2.20 billion in sales in Q1 2023 compared to $1.92 billion in the same period last year, a 15 percent increase. The company reported $508 million in revenue from its other checkpoint inhibitor Yervoy (ipilimumab), a 1 percent dip from $515 million in Q1 2022.
On a call to discuss the company's financials on Thursday, BMS CFO David Elkins said the increase in Opdivo sales was driven by demand in first-line lung cancer, upper gastrointestinal indications, and adjuvant bladder cancer. "The strong execution of the first quarter gives us confidence in the continued growth expected for Opdivo," Elkins said.
The company's PD-1 and LAG-3 combination drug Opdualag (nivolumab and relatlimab) had revenues of $117 million in revenue in Q1 2023. The drug was approved in the US last March as a first-line treatment for an all-comer metastatic melanoma population but approved in Europe in September in the first-line setting only for those whose tumors express PD-L1 in fewer than 1 percent of cells.
Chris Boerner, chief operating officer at BMS, noted that Opdualag has more than 20 percent of the market share in first-line melanoma. "We're seeing roughly 65 percent of the utilization coming from PD-1 monotherapy, and remember that is the lowest hanging fruit for continued growth of this product," Boerner said, adding some physicians who previously used Opdivo-Yervoy for melanoma but are concerned about Yervoy's toxicity are switching to Opdualag.
"During the first quarter, we saw a [National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines] update, [which] removed BRAF/MEK inhibitors as a preferred treatment in the first-line setting," added Boerner, who was promoted to COO this week and starting Nov. 1 will be BMS's CEO, replacing Giovanni Caforio, the current chief executive.
"Now, when you look at preferred treatment options in first-line melanoma, they are all dual [immuno-oncology], either Opdivo-Yervoy or Opdualag," Boerner said. "That's a really important recognition on the importance of dual IO therapy targeted in that first-line setting, [and] Opdualag is going to continue to play a really important opportunity there."
BMS's autologous CAR T-cell therapies Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel) and Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) reported significant sales growth in Q1 2023, as the company works to increase manufacturing capacity. Abecma, approved for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, recorded revenue of $147 million in Q1 2023, more than double the $67 million recorded in the year-ago quarter. Breyanzi, a treatment for large B-cell lymphoma, had sales of $71 million in the first quarter compared to $44 million in Q1 2022, a 61 percent increase.
In Q1 2023, Breyanzi was recommended as a second-line treatment for relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma patients by the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, aligning with BMS's efforts to move the drug into earlier treatment lines. BMS also said this month that regulators in the US, Europe, and Japan are reviewing submissions seeking Abecma's approval in this earlier setting.
In Q1 2023, BMS spent $2.32 billion on R&D, a 3 percent increase from Q1 2022 when it spent $2.26 billion. The company also spent $1.76 billion on marketing, selling, and administrative expenses, a 4 percent decrease from $1.83 billion in Q1 2022.
BMS's net earnings in Q1 2023 were $2.26 billion, or $1.07 per share, compared to $1.28 billion, or $.59 per share, in Q1 2022. The company's adjusted EPS was $2.05, exceeding the consensus Wall Street EPS estimate of $1.97.
As of March 31, BMS had $9.27 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt securities.