Many things seem to have gone wrong for Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) in 2017. Prominent amongst them is the exemplary rise of Merck’s (MRK) Keytruda, a direct competitor to Bristol’s Opdivo, across multiple indications, both as monotherapy or in combination with other agents.

While Opdivo entered the market before Keytruda, it seems to have lost its first mover advantage especially in the lung cancer indication. However, there is definitely more to Bristol-Myers Squibbs than Opdivo in lung cancer. In Q1 2018, the drug earned almost 60% of its U.S. market revenues from non-lung cancer indications. Opdivo has been maintaining its leading market share in areas such as head and neck, melanoma, and RCC. The drug is also seeing increasing demand as adjuvant therapy in melanoma indication. And with increasing reimbursement coverage, Opdivo has also been witnessing rapid uptake in ex-US markets.

In this context, whether Opdivo is a growing or stagnant franchise definitely requires additional analysis. In this series, I will explain at detail why I believe in Opdivo as well as in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s potential to return to a growth trajectory in coming years.

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