A Little Trouble For Bristol-Myers (BMY) Plavix

Plavix from Bristol-Myers (BMY) is the medical drug-thinner of choice. According to CNN Money, sales of the drug "totaled $3.4 billion in sales during the first nine months" 

Now Eli Lilly (LLY) has a horse in the race. The Associated Press reports that "a new blood thinner proved better than Plavix, one of the world’s top-selling drugs, at preventing heart problems after procedures to open clogged arteries." The news services added people given the experimental drug, prasugrel, were nearly 20 percent less likely to suffer one of the problems in a combined measure — heart attack, stroke or heart-related death — than those given Plavix, a drug that millions of Americans take to prevent blood clots that cause these events.

Lilly could use a little help. Its shares are flat this year, while Bristol-Myers is up over 10%.

The problems with these new drugs and treatments is always the same. They solve one problem, but cause another. Patients taking prasugrel are more likely to die from bleeding.

Oh, well.

Douglas A. McIntyre