Despite increased competition from generics, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) reported a slight increase in its second-quarter sales results.
Second-quarter net sales were at $4.9 billion, up 1% over the same period a year earlier.
Sales of BMS’ blood thinner Plavix, the company’s top-selling drug, rebounded after a generic version made by Canadian generics company Apotex briefly entered the US market late last year.
Plavix sales were up 3.8% to $1.1 billion in the second-quarter from $1.0 billion.
A federal court judge recently upheld Plavix’s patent exclusivity until 2011.
Plavix was the No. 2 selling drug behind Pfizer’s Lipitor in 2005, with global sales of $5.9 billion.
Second-quarter sales of schizophrenia drug Abilify were up 27% to $412 million.
Sales of AIDS drug Reyataz were rose 7.6% to $254 million.
Hypertension drugs Avapro and Avalide posted a combined 6.1% increase to $297 million.
Meanwhile, sales of oncology drug Erbitux dropped 5.8% to $162 from $172 million a year earlier. BMS pays royalties to ImClone Systems on Erbitux. Both companies recently announced that a late-stage study of the drug in lung-cancer patients didn’t meet the primary endpoint of progression-free survival.
The company’s once popular cholesterol drug Pravachol, which lost patent protection in April 2006, saw its sales shrink by 59% in the second-quarter to $132 million from $323 million in the year earlier period.
