Will the Recent Pricing Deal With the Government Impact BMY's Sales?

Bristol Myers Squibb BMY announced a pricing agreement with the U.S. government to supply Eliquis (apixaban) at no cost to Medicaid beginning Jan. 1, 2026. BMY will also donate more than 7 tons of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used in Eliquis to help ensure supply-chain resilience.

Eliquis is a prescription medicine used in adults to reduce the risk of stroke and blood clots in people who have atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem.

BMY has a worldwide co-development and co-commercialization agreement with pharma giant Pfizer PFE for Eliquis.

The drug is one of the most widely prescribed oral blood thinner.

While the financial impact of the deal was not provided by BMY, Eliquis is the top revenue generator for the company.

Eliquis sales totaled $11 billion in the first nine months of 2025, up 8% year over year.

Hence, it remains to be seen how the pricing deal will impact sales of its top-revenue generator next year.

The pricing deal with the government also includes offering drugs like Sotyktu (deucravacitinib), Zeposia (ozanimod), Reyataz (atazanavir), Baraclude (entecavir), and Orencia SC (abatacept) at 80% discount to cash-paying patients.

BMY will continue to expand domestic production across the United States.

On the other hand, BMY will receive three years of tariff relief and will not be subject to future pricing mandates.

BMY’s Growth Portfolio, comprising drugs like Opdivo, Opdivo Qvantig, Reblozyl, Breyanzi, Camzyos and Opdualag, among others, has somewhat stabilized its revenue base amid generic competition for its legacy drugs (Revlimid, Pomalyst, Sprycel and Abraxane).

Competition for BMY’s Top Drugs

Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ Xarelto is also a Factor Xa inhibitor, similar to Eliquis.

However, JNJ is facing patent challenges for Xarelto in the United States. JNJ co-developed Xarelto with Bayer AG.

Apart from Eliquis, immuno-oncology drug Opdivo is another top revenue generator for BMY.

While the recent label expansions of Opdivo is positive, the immuno-oncology space is dominated by pharma giant Merck’s MRK blockbuster drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab).

Keytruda is approved for several types of cancer and alone accounts for more than 50% of MRK’s pharmaceutical sales. Merck is currently working on different strategies to drive the long-term growth of Keytruda.

BMY’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Bristol Myers have lost 5.3% in a year against the industry’s growth of 15.5%.

From a valuation standpoint, BMY is trading at a discount to the large-cap pharma industry. Going by the price/earnings ratio, BMY’s shares currently trade at 9.07x forward earnings, higher than its mean of 8.40x but lower than the large-cap pharma industry’s 17.27x.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 earnings per share has moved north in the past 60 days, while that for 2026 EPS has moved south.

BMY currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).  You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
 



 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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