Bristol-Myers Squibb has posted strong growth in its net earnings during the first quarter ended March 2014 despite lower sales. The net earnings improved by 53.9 per cent to US$ 937 million from $609 million in the similar quarter of last year with significant cost reduction in the area of marketing, and advertising.

The company's net product sales declined by 5.1 per cent to $2,807 million from $2,957 million. However, its alliance and other revenues improved to $1,004 million from $874 million. Its total revenues declined by 0.5 per cent to $3,811 million from $3,831 million. Its US revenues decreased by 10 per cent to $1.8 billion and international revenues improved by 10 per cent to $2 billion. R&D expenditure increased by 1.7 per cent to $946 million from $930 million.

The company completed the sale of its diabetes business to AstraZeneca and received $3.3 billion in closing and milestone payments during the quarter under review. Further, the first quarter was highlighted by the achievement of important regulatory milestones for Eliquis, daclatasvir/asunaprevir and the diabetes franchise.

Lamberto Andreotti, CEO, said, “In the first quarter, we again delivered strong financial results, demonstrating the strength of our core brands and our focus on operational execution. We continue to build a foundation for long term success by investing across our portfolio, developing our innovative pipeline and advancing our evolution to a diversified specialty care biopharma leader.”

Bristol-Myers Squibb is adjusting its 2014 GAAP EPS guidance range to $1.70 - $1.80 from $1.75 - $1.90 and its non-GAAP EPS guidance range to $1.70 - $1.80 from $1.65 - $1.80. Both GAAP and non-GAAP guidance assume current exchange rates. Worldwide revenues projected between $15.2 billion and $15.8 billion and full-year gross margin as a percentage of revenues between 75 per cent and 76 per cent. Research and development expenses growing in the mid-single-digit range.