NEW YORK: Bristol-Myers Squibb , which is set to buy biotechnology company Celgene Corp soon for US$74 billion, posted better-than-expected second-quarter earnings on Thursday on strong sales from its blood thinner Eliquis and rheumatoid arthritis treatment Orencia.
Excluding one-time items, the drugmaker said it earned US$1.18 a share, beating analyst expectations of US$1.07 a share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Sales of Eliquis rose 24per cent to US$2.04 billion and Orencia sales rose 9per cent to US$778 million. Both drugs performed better than analysts expected.
Opdivo combined with chemotherapy failed to extend overall survival more than chemotherapy alone in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer .