Af­ter 16 years, BM­S' megablock­buster can­cer drug fi­nal­ly runs in­to its first gener­ic com­pe­ti­tion

First ap­proved by the FDA in 2006, Bris­tol My­ers Squibb’s cash cow can­cer drug Revlim­id on Mon­day be­gan see­ing com­pe­ti­tion for the first time with a Te­va gener­ic.

Ac­quired as part of BMS’ $74 bil­lion buy­out of Cel­gene in 2019, the mul­ti­ple myelo­ma and third-line man­tle cell lym­phoma drug, known gener­i­cal­ly as lenalido­mide, hauled in $12.8 bil­lion in 2021, and more than $12 bil­lion in 2020 too. And from 2009 to 2018, Cel­gene re­port­ed over $50 bil­lion in net world­wide rev­enue from Revlim­id.

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