Debt And Patent Expiries Will Erode US Pharma Margins

Key Takeaways

• Loss of exclusivity and pricing pressures will erode revenue and margin growth, posing significant long-term financial headwinds.
  
• High debt, execution risk, and tougher regulatory climate restrict flexibility, increase costs, and threaten sustainable profitability.
  
• Strong product uptake, pipeline expansion, and strategic partnerships position the company for sustained growth and improved profitability despite legacy drug revenue declines.

Catalysts

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide.

• Intensifying global efforts to control healthcare costs and curb drug pricing are set to significantly erode Bristol-Myers Squibb's pricing power, especially as value-based care models expand and governments implement stricter reimbursement criteria; sustained margin compression and slower revenue growth are likely over the long term as a result.
  
• The impending loss of exclusivity for major blockbusters such as Eliquis, Opdivo, and Revlimid after 2026 will trigger severe revenue cliffs, as these high-margin drugs face a rapid influx of generics and biosimilars, leading to substantial revenue erosion and a sharp decline in net income.
  
• Execution risk in the pipeline remains high, with recent unexpected clinical trial results and several near-term data readouts that, if negative or merely incremental, would leave the company with anemic top-line growth and weaken its ability to backfill lost sales, causing long-term earnings volatility.
  
• Elevated debt levels from aggressive business development activity have tightened financial flexibility, and future interest expense will further reduce net margins while limiting the company's ability to invest in R&D, pursue new acquisitions, or support shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks.
  
• Heightened regulatory scrutiny, increased competition from nimble biotech firms, and stricter safety requirements will continue to drive up R&D costs and time-to-market, eroding operating margins and undermining Bristol-Myers Squibb's ability to maintain profitability as industry dynamics shift unfavorably.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• This narrative explores a more pessimistic perspective on Bristol-Myers Squibb compared to the consensus, based on a Fair Value that aligns with the bearish cohort of analysts.
• The bearish analysts are assuming Bristol-Myers Squibb's revenue will decrease by 6.2% annually over the next 3 years.
• The bearish analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 10.6% today to 16.5% in 3 years time.
• The bearish analysts expect earnings to reach $6.5 billion (and earnings per share of $3.21) by about August 2028, up from $5.0 billion today. The analysts are largely in agreement about this estimate.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the price target of the more bearish analyst cohort, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 14.1x on those 2028 earnings, down from 18.5x today. This future PE is lower than the current PE for the US Pharmaceuticals industry at 18.4x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to grow by 0.4% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 6.78%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• The rapidly growing demand across Bristol-Myers Squibb's growth portfolio-demonstrated by a 17% year-over-year sales increase, robust uptake of new launches like Cobenfy and Qvantig, and expanding market share in oncology and cardiovascular therapies-suggests that sustained and broad-based revenue growth may offset the expected declines from legacy drugs.
  
• Strategic partnerships and business development, including the high-profile BioNTech collaboration and radiopharmaceutical expansion with Philochem, have the potential to create new billion-dollar revenue streams and diversify the company's drug pipeline, supporting long-term earnings growth and mitigating risks from individual asset expirations.
  
• A strong pipeline with numerous upcoming data readouts (seven registration assets and seven life cycle management opportunities over 24 months), focused execution on late-stage clinical programs, and ongoing lifecycle management of portfolios all point to the possibility of steady to rising earnings and improved net margins if success rates remain in line with recent launches.
  
• Cost optimization and productivity initiatives, including a $2 billion savings target by 2027 and ongoing deleveraging efforts, provide further cushion and flexibility for operating margins and strengthen the company's capacity to fund R&D and business development, supporting stable or improving profitability.
  
• Global secular trends such as the aging population, increased healthcare spending in developed and emerging markets, and accelerating advances in personalized medicine and biologics adoption, all support sustained demand and pricing power for innovative therapies, creating a secular tailwind for long-term revenue and profit growth.

Valuation

• The assumed bearish price target for Bristol-Myers Squibb is $36.7, which represents two standard deviations below the consensus price target of $53.48. This valuation is based on what can be assumed as the expectations of Bristol-Myers Squibb's future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors from analysts on the more bearish end of the spectrum.
  
• However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of $68.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just $34.0.
  
• In order for you to agree with the bearish analysts, you'd need to believe that by 2028, revenues will be $39.4 billion, earnings will come to $6.5 billion, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 14.1x, assuming you use a discount rate of 6.8%.
  
• Given the current share price of $45.95, the bearish analyst price target of $36.7 is 25.2% lower. Despite analysts expecting the underlying buisness to improve, they seem to believe the market's expectations are too high.
  
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.