Bristol Myers Squibb delivered better than expected fourth quarter earnings, but Eliquis missed expectations while Cobenfy continues to struggle with uptake.
Bristol Myers Squibb sales hit $12.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, beating analyst expectations of $12.28 billion, while questions swirled around blood thinner Eliquis and new schizophrenia drug Cobenfy.
Despite being the company’s top seller for the quarter, raking in $3.4 billion, Eliquis missed expectations of $3.71 billion. The drug “meaningfully underperformed,” according to analysts from William Blair, writing to investors Thursday morning.
Nevertheless, BMS projected that Eliquis’ sales would grow between 10% and 15% in 2026, drawing comments from the peanut gallery on the company’s earnings call Thursday. “I don’t think this product has gone double digit in several years,” Steve Scala, veteran analyst at TD Cowen, said.
But BMS Chief Commercial Officer Adam Lenkowsky was confident that the “strong demand” for Eliquis will continue into 2026, especially as the price drops due to Inflation Reduction Act negotiations going into effect for the drug this year.
At the same time, BMS warned that Eliquis will face headwinds in 2027, shedding between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in sales compared to 2026. This also drew a comment from Scala, who said he wasn’t clear why sales would go up in one year and then drop the next.
Lenkowsky pointed to the drug’s loss of exclusivity in Europe, which will begin in November 2026. Despite 70% of Eliquis’ business coming from the U.S., he said the company is expecting a “rapid and steep decline” in Europe that will lead to a drop in sales in 2027.
Meanwhile, sales of schizophrenia drug Cobenfy were sluggish again at $51 million for the quarter, a 3% miss versus consensus expectations.
“We really haven’t seen an inflection point in [Cobenfy] sales. Is there a bottleneck in access that you really have to still work through?” Citi analyst Geoff Meacham asked on the call.
“Cobenfy delivered over 100,000 Rxs since launch,” Lenkowsky replied, adding that the drug has close to 100% coverage across Medicaid and Medicare and is “approaching” 70% coverage in commercial insurance. “It’s not a bottleneck,” he added.
To aid in Cobenfy’s uptake, however, he pointed to upcoming studies that BMS is presenting this year, including a Phase 4 trial aimed at getting physicians and patients to switch to Cobenfy from a different drug, like a classical dopamine-related treatment. That study is expected to read out later this quarter.
BMS’ sales were $48.2 billion for the full-year 2025, beating consensus estimates of $48 billion. The company put projections for 2026 at between $46 billion and $47.5 billion, the midpoint of which is about $2.6 billion above consensus of $44.2 billion, according to William Blair.
