Bristol-Myers’ Strategy to Ward Off Generic Competition

CNBC.com

Generic competition will be the major headwind that Bristol-Myers Squibb faces this quarter, as its blockbuster drug Plavix — which saw U.S. sales peak at $7 billion last year — went off patent in May.

The Street is estimating an 18 percent drop in second quarter sales to $4.4 billion, and a 14 percent slump in profit growth.

Bristol-Myers has been working hard at fighting generic competition by building out its drug portfolio via acquisitions.

It announced the acquisition of Inhibitexback in January for $2.5 billion. It also recently announced the planned acquisition of diabetes drug-maker Amylin Pharmaceuticalsfor $5.3 billion. With two major acquisitions in just the first part of 2012, analysts will be listening for the latest on Bristol’s future M&A plans.

Bristol-Myers Squibb also has a couple of drugs in development that analysts are hoping for an update on: a blood thinner named Eliquis, that it is co-developing with Pfizer, and a Hepatitis C treatment, which Goldman Sachs says will make Bristol well-positioned to capture share in what could be a $10 billion dollar market.

-By CNBC's Seema Mody
@SeemaCnbc

This story has been updated.

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