During their earnings report today, drug giant Bristol Myers Squibb announced it raked in $45 billion in 2023, bringing in a profit of over $8 billion and beating Wall Street expectations. The company manufactures Eliquis, a popular drug used by more than 3.5 million Medicare beneficiaries to treat blood clots that has been selected among the first 10 drugs for Medicare price negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act. Unsurprisingly, Bristol Myers Squibb opposes the Biden administration reforms that allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. While drugmakers earn billions, Americans pay exorbitantly high prices for prescription drugs.
- During the call, CEO Chris Boerner bragged about the company’s “good performance” in the fourth quarter and throughout 2023.
- Bristol Myers Squibb brought in $12.2 billion in 2023 from blockbuster blood clot drug Eliquis, and has now made over $69 billion on Eliquis since launching the drug in 2012. Eliquis costs U.S. customers 3–7x more than customers in other high-income countries.
- Bristol Myers Squibb announced it is rewarding its shareholders with an additional $3 billion in stock buybacks over the next several years, alongside a quarterly dividend increase of over 5 percent compared to Q4 2022.
- While Bristol Myers Squibb raised prices on U.S. patients, it rewarded its CEO with over $20 million in compensation in 2022.
- Bristol Myers Squibb announced agreements last month to acquire two smaller drug companies, Karuna Therapeutics and RayzeBio, and last week completed its acquisition of a third, Mirati Therapeutics.
- Bristol Myers Squibb is suing the Biden administration to stop Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices for patients because it would endanger their massive profits.
- On aggregate, drug companies charge Americans prices up to four times higher than prices in other countries, forcing patients to cut pills and skip doses.
- Over 80 percent of voters support giving Medicare the power to negotiate, making it the most popular provision in the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Inflation Reduction Act brings down prescription drug costs for everyday Americans, especially seniors, by capping the price of insulin at $35 per month and providing free vaccines including shingles, giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices, and limiting the amount people have to pay each year for prescription drugs to $2,000 annually starting in 2025.
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