Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Those accounts account for roughly 60% of the overall patient volume. And what we’ve seen over the last quarter is a nice acceleration in the use of Camzyos in those accounts. And importantly, some of the slower accounts that we have been focused on continue to build the infrastructure necessary to get patients on therapy. And so we’ve seen a nice acceleration with those specific accounts as well. So overall, we feel like we’re making good progress as we exit 2022.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Chris Schott with JPMorgan.

Christopher Schott : Just going back to Sotyktu. Does the mild to moderate Otezla label represent a hurdle at all for Sotyktu as you think about competing for frontline share? Obviously, you’re seeing some now. But is that a hurdle you guys think about? And just maybe slip a really quick second one in. Eliquis, you saw favorable gross to net in most of the quarters in 2022. Does that continue in ’23? Or should we think of growth this year, maybe more aligned with volume growth?

Christopher Boerner : Sure. This is Chris. I’ll take both of those. Thanks for the questions, Chris. With respect to Sotyktu, we don’t see that the Otezla broader market going into the mild category has an impact on us. And in fact, what we’re seeing is very strong momentum with Sotyktu in moderate to severe patients. When we talk to customers, what we hear from them. There’s excitement to use the product in the full spectrum of our label, which includes not only the severe patients, but importantly, those moderate patients. And then if you look at the uptake that we’re seeing so far, it’s reflective of the fact that physicians are going to be willing to use it, really both in moderate to severe. So given the fact that we have two Phase III studies that clearly show superiority across that patient population relative to Otezla, we don’t see that being a particular barrier with respect to how we think about the uptake of the product.

As for gross to nets for Eliquis, for 2022, as you know, we did see some favorability due to mainly the source of business and channel mix. But as you well know, this space is a very competitive space. It’s heavily managed. So we don’t see gross to net favorability as we look forward. There will continue to be variability across quarters. As we’ve talked about many times in the past, you do see late year seasonality with a product like Eliquis and gross to nets. But on a forward-looking basis, we don’t see favorability with gross and that’s with this product.

Operator: The next question is from the line of Seamus Fernandez with Guggenheim.

Seamus Fernandez : So my question actually is on IRA and the drugs that are potentially going to be selected for negotiation towards the end of this year. Just wondering how Bristol is going to manage that situation in particular? I know that you do have patent expirations that will limit the impact there. But if that is starting in 2026, given Bristol’s current product portfolio, Eliquis, one of the top players there, just interested to know what it is that you feel Bristol can do to temper the impact there? And then also a sort of separate but related question on IRA. We’re seeing the sort of free drug launches that are running for at least a full year and maybe not purely free drug, but substantially aided. Trying to just get a better understanding, particularly for oral, it’s starting to look like the life cycle there is starting to get truncated to six to seven years.

Wondering if you feel comfortable or even confident that there’ll be a better alignment of the oral incentives versus biologic incentives inside IRA as well?