Bristol-Myers Results Boosted by Cancer Drugs

By Tess Stynes 

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said its second-quarter revenue rose 17%, again driven by the growth of the pharmaceutical company's Opdivo cancer immunotherapy and other key drugs.

Per-share earnings and revenue beat expectations, and the company also raised its 2016 guidance.

For the year, Bristol-Myers now expects per-share earnings of $2.55 to $2.65, compared with its previous estimate of $2.50 to $2.60.

For the three-month period ended June 30, Bristol-Myers reported revenue rose to $4.87 billion from $4.16 billion a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected revenue of $4.65 billion.

Opdivo, also known as nivolumab, was first approved for sale in December 2014 for advanced melanoma and has since received approvals for other diseases, most recently for classical Hodgkin lymphoma. In the latest quarter, Opdivo sales soared to $840 million from $122 million a year earlier.

Sales of Yervoy, another skin-cancer immunotherapy drug, declined again in the latest quarter, falling 19% to $241 million globally, partly because of Opdivo's growth, particularly in skin cancer. However, Yervoy sales increased 32% to $179 million in the U.S., with a boost from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval last year of the company's Opdivo/Yervoy combination regimen for melanoma, which also received approval from European regulators in May. Bristol's Yervoy was the first immunotherapy, approved in 2011.

Among other key drugs, sales of anticlotting drug Eliquis sales grew 78% to $777 million, and sales of hepatitis C drugs increased 14% to $546 million.

Over all, Bristol-Myers reported a profit of $1.16 billion, or 69 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $130 million, or 8 cents a share. Analysts expected per-share profit of 67 cents.

The year-earlier period included charges of 48 cents a share related to the company's acquisition of biotechnology company Flexus, which provided Bristol-Myers with a pipeline of investigational immunotherapy treatments.

Write to Tess Stynes at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2016 07:15 ET (11:15 GMT)

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