Bristol Myers’ growing challenge

With nearly 90% of its revenues at risk from loss of exclusivity over the next five years, Bristol Myers must figure out the best path it can take during what it calls a “transition period” to keep investors satisfied and critics at bay. Almost certainly, it will take a string of major clinical and commercial successes from its late-stage and recently acquired pipeline to backfill a sufficient portion of the loss with new product launches.

Patent cliffs are a perennial problem for pharmas. Every large-cap biopharma has to navigate transition periods where the growth of new products races against the decline of older blockbusters facing generic competition. And while it has plenty of company for this problem, the cliff that Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) faces is especially steep...