Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Moat Score — Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Total Moat Score
12 / 30
| Moat Factor | Score | Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| Intangible Assets Patents, trademarks, brand strength, or regulatory licenses that protect a company's products or services from being freely copied by competitors. | 3 / 5 | BMS holds patent protection across its portfolio and strong payer/prescriber relationships, but its two largest products, Eliquis and Opdivo, face loss of exclusivity later this decade, eroding the durability of this advantage. |
| Cost Advantage A durable ability to produce goods or services more cheaply than competitors — through scale, unique access to cheap inputs, location, or process — that lets a company undercut rivals or out-earn them at the same price. | 2 / 5 | Like most large pharmaceutical companies, BMS's economics depend on patent-protected pricing rather than a structural manufacturing cost advantage over peers. |
| Pricing Power The ability to raise prices without losing meaningful business, because the product or service is differentiated, mission-critical, or has few good substitutes. | 2 / 5 | Patent-protected drugs support premium pricing during exclusivity, but U.S. Medicare price negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act and looming generic/biosimilar competition are actively compressing this power. |
| Network Effect The product or service becomes more valuable to every user as more people or organizations use it, making an established leader harder to displace. | 0 / 5 | Prescription drugs are sold and consumed individually; there is no network effect where the product becomes more valuable as more patients use it. |
| Switching Costs The money, time, or operational disruption a customer would face switching to a competitor, which locks in existing customers and supports renewals. | 3 / 5 | Physicians and patients are often reluctant to switch established, effective chronic therapies, supporting some revenue durability, though this softens once lower-cost generic or biosimilar alternatives become available. |
| Efficient Scale A market that can only profitably support a small number of players, so incumbents face limited threat from new entrants even without other defenses. | 2 / 5 | Oncology and immunology, BMS's key growth areas, are intensely competitive with Merck's Keytruda, AbbVie, and others aggressively contesting share, limiting the degree to which the market structurally protects incumbents. |