By Jared S. Hopkins

Shares in Bristol-Myers Squibb fell more than 4% in premarket trading Thursday, after the drug maker gave 2025 guidance that undershot analyst expectations.

-- Bristol expects sales of about $45.5 billion in 2025, compared with the $46.3 billion estimate of analysts polled by FactSet.

-- It expects adjusted earnings this year of between $6.55 and $6.85 a share, compared with $6.91 a share predicted by analysts.

The guidance reflects generic competition eating into sales of some older bestsellers, including cancer treatments Revlimid and Pomalyst, whose combined sales exceeded $7 billion last year.

"It's a tale of two trends," said Bristol Chief Executive Chris Boerner in an interview, of the 2025 outlook. Alongside the hit from generics, "at the same we're expecting to see good momentum in the growth portfolio" of newer drugs, he said.

Boerner called out the new schizophrenia drug, Cobenfy, which won approval last year and which analysts predict could ring up multibillion-dollar sales. The rollout has helped boost the stock, which is up about 25% over the past year.

-- The company also said it would expand a cost-cutting effort by another $2 billion, by the end of 2027. It had cut about $1.5 billion of costs last year.

-- Fourth-quarter revenue grew 8% to $12.3 billion, beating analyst estimates of $11.6 billion.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 06, 2025 08:30 ET (13:30 GMT)

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