In addition to canning an Orum-acquired blood cancer candidate last month, Bristol Myers Squibb cut a Prothena-partnered neuro asset in the third quarter. But with sales climbing 7%, the Big Pharma raised its full-year revenue forecast.
Bristol Myers Squibb has shelved two biotech-partnered pipeline candidates after reviewing early data, while also disclosing third quarter results that prompted the pharma to raise its full-year revenue outlook.
The first axed asset, known as BMS-986495 or PRX019, is an investigational monoclonal antibody that BMS licensed from Prothena in May 2024 for $80 million upfront and up to $617 million in biobucks, plus potential royalties. The asset is designed to treat neurodegeneration, though publicly shared details are sparse, with the completed Phase 1 trial conducted among healthy adults.
“Following review of Phase 1 data, we have decided not to advance this program,” a BMS spokesperson told BioSpace in an email. BioSpace has reached out to Prothena about its plans for PRX019 and how the decision will impact its organization.
Other aspects of BMS’ Prothena partnership will continue. The biotech initially teamed up with Celgene in 2018 to develop new neuroscience therapies. After BMS acquired Celgene for $74 billion in 2019, the pharma began working with Prothena on the monoclonal antibody known as moponetug, or PRX005, for Alzheimer’s disease. The tau-targeting candidate has secured fast track designation from the FDA and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 trial set to read out in the first half of next year.
“Our neuroscience collaboration with Prothena continues,” the BMS spokesperson said, confirming moponetug’s ongoing development in Alzheimer’s.
In the third quarter, BMS also discontinued an early-stage degrader-antibody conjugate (DAC) picked up from Korean biotech Orum Therapeutics. The pharma ended development of the blood cancer asset, which it acquired in 2023 for $100 million upfront and up to $80 million in milestones, “after reviewing the clinical data for the program,” according to a September regulatory filing from Orum. The decision was made after determining that the overall risk-benefit profile for ORM-6151 doesn’t support further development, the BMS spokesperson said on Thursday.
Stronger sales and high-stakes pipeline readouts
The pipeline cuts come as BMS works to build a new generation of revenue drivers ahead of looming exclusivity losses for PD-1 blockbuster Opdivo and Pfizer-partnered blood thinner Eliquis. Last year, Eliquis brought in $14.4 billion in global sales, while Opdivo secured $10 billion—together accounting for roughly half of BMS’ $48.2 billion total revenue.
Analysts have scrutinized BMS’ pipeline plans, with BMO’s senior biopharma analyst Evan Seigerman citing the risky nature of several of the assets BMS has teed up as potential revenue replacements.
But today, the pharma delivered top- and bottom-line beats—3% and 23%, respectively—that “continue to support a better commercial story for Bristol,” Seigerman and colleagues wrote in a Thursday investor note.
BMS’ growth and legacy portfolios both delivered revenue slightly above consensus expectations, with the subcutaneous Opdivo Qvantig beating consensus by 5% on improved convenience, and the legacy products driven by stronger-than-expected revenues from Eliquis at $4.62 billion and Revlimid at $303 million revenue.
For the third quarter, the company’s revenue increased 7% to $13.1 billion, beating a $12.75 billion consensus.
BMS has now raised topline guidance for the full year by 1%, from a range of $49–$50 billion to $49.75–$50.25 billion. However, due to a $1.65 billion acquisition-related hit for the first nine months of the year, expectations for earnings per share dropped from $6.75–$7 to $6.35–$6.55.
Notably, data for milvexian—a Johnson & Johnson–partnered oral Factor XIa inhibitor—in secondary stroke prevention remains on track for this year, BMO wrote. This summer, BMS delayed a Phase 3 readout for the candidate in atrial fibrillation into 2027. The asset is one of three key pipeline programs BMS is pinning its hopes on, alongside schizophrenia medicine Cobenfy and late-stage pulmonary fibrosis candidate admilparant.
Elsewhere in the pipeline, BMS is working to address safety concerns in its autoimmune CAR T program, including a death that was disclosed late last week. The patient had multiple sclerosis and died from septic pneumonia after receiving BMS’ zolacabtagene autoleucel (zola-cel).
The pharma had voluntarily paused some autoimmune trials of zola-cel in August but appears to still be bullish on the CAR T’s potential.
“We truly remain excited about [the] zola-cel program because when we look at the totality of our data, we had 190 patients treated in Phase 1,” BMS Chief Medical Officer Cristian Massacesi said on the investor call. “The overall safety and efficacy profile of this product is truly compelling.
“After an extensive analysis of all our data, we identified that the root cause was a change that we made in the selection and activation of the reagent,” he explained. “We [have] now made the proper adjustment of it, and we are working with authority to restart the clinical program as soon as possible.”
Despite the setbacks, execs pointed to late-stage progress—like the recent radiopharmaceutical win in a late-stage Phase 3 tumor trial—while emphasizing the need to strengthen earlier efforts, too.
“We’ve got some wind at our back with respect to late-stage development,” BMS CEO Chris Boerner said on a Thursday investor call. “But clearly there’s a lot of focus we have as a company on strengthening R&D and continuing to deliver not just on that late-stage pipeline but also progress the earlier pipeline, so that we drive sustained growth over time.”
The Big Pharma remains open to striking deals for external innovation that align with BMS’ priorities, Boerner said.
