(Bloomberg) -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. tumbled in premarket trading after the company pushed back its forecast for when a new crop of drugs will reach $10 billion in sales, raising investor concern about how soon the company can recoup lost ground after one of its top drugs went off patent.

The shares fell 4.3% as of 8:04 a.m. Thursday in New York. If the decline holds into regular trading, Bristol will be set for its biggest fall since July 27.

Bristol was forced to slash its full 2023 revenue outlook in July after blood cancer drug Revlimid missed expectations by a broad margin and other top drugs also underperformed. Investors are now looking for signs that the company’s products will gain traction amid hot competition from cheaper copies and alternative branded drugs. 

After Revlimid’s patent expiry, investors have looked to a group of recently launched medicines for ailments from psoriasis to melanoma to fill the gap. Several of them underperformed in the third quarter, and now Bristol sees that group of treatments exceeding $10 billion in sales in 2026, according to a statement, one year later than it earlier forecast.

Sales of new drugs will reach $3.5 billion this year, Chief Financial Officer David Elkins said in an interview before the earnings were released. In February, he had said on an earnings call that they would be approximately $4 billion.

Sotyktu, a psoriasis treatment seen as one of the company’s most promising new therapies, brought in $66 million in the third quarter, beating analyst estimates. Several other drugs, including anemia drug Reblozyl and Abecma, used for multiple myeloma, missed analysts’ projections.  

“Abecma has been challenged by additional competitors in the market, but taken together the totality of our new product portfolio is very, very strong,” Adam Lenkowsky, chief commercialization officer, said in an interview.

Acquisitions Beckon

The company is turning to acquisitions to help shore up its pipeline as Eliquis and Opdivo, its top-selling drugs, will face generic competition later this decade. Bristol recently agreed to purchase Mirati Therapeutics Inc., maker of the Krazati cancer drug, for $4.8 billion. 

“We’re getting some very exciting assets at a reasonable price,” Lenkowsky said. The company will continue to try out drug combinations to find those that work best against different cancers, he said. 

Bristol’s blood thinner Eliquis saw quarterly sales of $2.71 billion, the company said Thursday in a statement, more than analysts expected. Blood-cancer drug Revlimid also beat expectations in spite of increased generic competition. Total revenue of $11 billion for the quarter nosed out analysts’ average estimate of $10.9 billion. 

Bristol now forecasts full-year earnings of $7.50 to $7.65 a share, lifting the lower end of the outlook from $7.35 a share. Lower estimated taxes were the main reason for the increase, Elkins told Bloomberg. The company kept its sales outlook unchanged at a low single-digit decline from last year. 

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

(Updates with new drug sales guidance in fifth paragraph.)

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