As Bristol Myers Squibb faces ongoing declines in its legacy drug portfolio, newer market entrants are more than picking up the slack, driving a second-quarter top- and bottom-line beat.
Bristol Myers on Thursday posted adjusted earnings of $2.04 a share, comfortably ahead of Wall Street's call for $1.60. Revenue rose 6% to $13 billion, handily beating the $11.7 billion analysts had anticipated.
The drugmaker also hiked its full-year guidance on the back of its latest quarter, with CEO Christopher Boerner touting the company's "continued momentum."
Management now sees revenue of $49 billion to $50 billion, up from a prior range of $46 billion to $47.5 billion. Adjusted earnings are forecast between $6.75 and $7 a share, compared with a previous estimate of $6.05 to $6.35. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $6.34 a share and $47.4 billion in revenue.
Shares rose 1.4% in premarket trading Thursday. Futures tracking the S&P 500 index were up 0.5%.
The beat was driven by newer products, which generated $7.56 billion worldwide. Opdivo -- an immunotherapy for skin cancer -- generated the bulk of that revenue even as its global sales fell 4% to $2.49 billion on a constant-currency basis, extending a drop from the first quarter. Meanwhile, sales of Opdivo Qvantig, a quick-administering subcutaneous version, tripled to $261 million during the latest period.
Boerner highlighted the strong performance of the company's growth portfolio during the quarter, describing it as "an expanding share of our overall business."
That expansion supplemented declining revenue in the drugmaker's legacy portfolio. Eliquis, a blood thinner co-developed with Pfizer, has long been a bright spot in that category. Worldwide revenue jumped 21% to $4.48 billion as sales of all other drugs, including historical blockbuster Revlimid, fell sharply.
Bristol Myers aims to deliver what it calls "industry-leading, sustainable growth" into the next decade. To achieve this and bolster its pipeline, the company -- like many of its peers -- is leaning on strategic licensing and co-development deals.
During the latest quarter, Bristol Myers entered into global agreements with China's Hengrui Pharma to advance 13 early-stage programs in oncology, hematology and immunology.
Bristol Myers also has forged deals with artificial-intelligence heavyweights Nvidia and Anthropic to streamline its research and manufacturing. After signing a strategic agreement in May to deploy Anthropic's Claude assistant, the drugmaker expanded its existing partnership with Nvidia earlier this month.