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Is BMY's Deep Pipeline the Key to Its Next Growth Phase?

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Key Takeaways

  • BMY highlighted pipeline assets with multi-billion-dollar potential at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
  • BMY expects key data in 2026 for milvexian and later this year for admilparant in pulmonary fibrosis.
  • BMY sees encouraging early uptake for Cobenfy as it pursues label expansion in Alzheimer's disease.

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY - Free Report) highlighted the potential of its deep and promising pipeline at the 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, held earlier this month.

Key pipeline candidates in BMY’s portfolio with multi-billion-dollar potential are milvexian (Oral factor XIa inhibitor), admilparant (LPA1 antagonist) pumitamig (PD-L1 x VEGF-A bispecific antibody) and iberdomide & mezigdomide (oral CELMoD protein degraders).

The company, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) , is developing milvexian for atrial fibrillation (AF) and secondary stroke prevention (SSP). Data from Librexia AF for AF and Librexia STROKE for SSP is expected in 2026.

The successful development of milvexian provides an opportunity to redefine anticoagulant therapy for thrombotic diseases.

Admilparant is being evaluated for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and progressive pulmonary fibrosis. The candidate has the potential to redefine the standard of care as a differentiated treatment. Data from the registrational ALOFT-IPF study is expected later in the year.

BMY and partner BioNTech are evaluating pumitamig for numerous solid tumor types.

Pumitamig is a novel investigational bispecific antibody, combining two complementary, validated mechanisms in oncology into a single molecule. Pumitamig combines PD-L1 checkpoint inhibition aimed at restoring T cells’ ability to recognize and destroy tumor cells with the neutralization of VEGF-A.

The FDA granted orphan drug designation to pumitamig for the treatment of patients with small-cell lung cancer in 2025.

The companies expect eight registrational trials to be underway by the end of the year.

Iberdomide is an investigational cereblon E3 ligase modulator (CELMoD) being studied for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. The late-stage EXCALIBER-RRMM study evaluated iberdomide in combination with daratumumab and dexamethasone. The study demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity rates compared to the control arm.

Meanwhile, BMY is also working on label expansion of schizophrenia drug Cobenfy. The drug represents the first new pharmacological approach to treating schizophrenia in decades. The initial uptake is encouraging, with sales of $105 million in the first nine months of 2025.

Cobenfy is being evaluated for psychosis associated with Alzheimer's disease, for agitation in Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease cognition. The drug is also being evaluated for bipolar 1 disorder.

The successful development of all these pipeline assets and label expansion of Cobenfy will be a significant boost for BMY as it seeks to expand its pipeline/portfolio, while its legacy portfolio continues to be adversely impacted by the continued generic impact on Revlimid, Pomalyst, Sprycel and Abraxane.

BMY’s Competition in Key Targeted Markets

Oncology is a key therapeutic area of focus for Bristol Myers, which is developing and delivering transformational medicines in this space.  

The company competes with big pharma giants Merck (MRK - Free Report) and Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) in this space.

The immuno-oncology space is dominated by pharma giant MRK’s blockbuster drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab). 

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

Developing bispecific antibodies that target two proteins, namely PD-1 and VEGF, has lately been one of the lucrative areas in cancer treatment.

In 2024, Merck received an exclusive global license to develop, manufacture and commercialize LM-299, a novel investigational PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody from LaNova.  Merck’s oncology portfolio boasts a blockbuster PD-L1 inhibitor, Keytruda, and the company is looking to build a diversified oncology pipeline spanning differentiated mechanisms and multiple modalities.

Pfizer (PFE - Free Report) is one of the largest and most successful drugmakers in the field of oncology. It has an innovative oncology product portfolio of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), small molecules, bispecifics and other immunotherapies that treat a wide range of cancers, including certain types of breast cancer, genitourinary cancer and hematologic malignancies, as well as certain types of melanoma, gastrointestinal, gynecological and lung cancer.  Pfizer also has oncology biosimilars in its portfolio.

PFE recently inked a licensing agreement with 3SBio for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of SSGJ-707, a bispecific antibody targeting PD-1 and VEGF, outside China.

BMY’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Bristol Myers have gained 11.3% over the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 16.3%.

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From a valuation standpoint, BMY is trading at a discount to the large-cap pharma industry. Going by the price/earnings ratio, shares currently trade at 9.08x forward earnings, higher than its mean of 7.66x but lower than the large-cap pharma industry’s 17.74x.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS has moved south to $6.48 from $6.51 in the past 60 days, while that for 2026 has moved north.

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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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