Bristol-Myers Squibb's 3rd-qtr income down 65% to $388M, as sales fall 12.5%

USA-based drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb reported income for the third quarter of 2006 of $388.0 million, or $0.17 per share, down 65% on the comparable period in 2005. The firm said that the decline was partly due to the inclusion of $569.0 million in income in the third quarter of 2005, resulting from the sale of its US and Canadian consumer medicines business and related assets to Swiss major Novartis (Marketletter July 25, 2005).

Impact of generic competition on key drugs

B-MS said that the period had also seen its sales decline 12.5% to $4.2 billion, citing the impact of generic competition on revenues from its blockbuster Plavix (clopidogrel), the blood-thinner it co-markets with French major Sanofi-Aventis, which fell 36% to $630.0 million, as a major factor in the reduction. The firm added that, on August 31, the District Court of the Southern District of New York ruled that Canadian firm Apotex, which produces generic clopidogrel bisulfate, must stop sales of the drug, but did not request that it recall supplies of the product it had shipped to that point (Marketletters passim).