With $14.2bn in projected revenue losses over six years, the Eliquis loss-of-exclusivity event is set to become one of the most consequential patent cliffs in pharmaceutical history — and a stark illustration of how quickly generic entry can dismantle even the industry's most entrenched brands.
With global sales of $14.4bn in 2025, the Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS)- and Pfizer-partnered anticoagulant ranks among the industry’s highest-grossing small molecules. Credit: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com.
Eliquis (apixaban) is one of the most commercially consequential loss-of-exclusivity (LOE) events in recent pharmaceutical history, with patent expiries expected this year for Europe and in 2027 for the US and Japan. With global sales of $14.4bn in 2025, the Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS)- and Pfizer-partnered anticoagulant ranks among the industry’s highest-grossing small molecules. Its long-standing clinical adoption and expansive prescriber base have made it the dominant oral anticoagulant globally, but also a brand whose exclusivity loss carries outsized revenue implications for BMS.
First approved in the EU in May 2011 and by the FDA in December 2012, Eliquis is a small molecule direct factor Xa inhibitor indicated across stroke prevention, atrial fibrillation, and venous thromboembolic conditions, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. As illustrated in Figure 1 (below), global Eliquis sales are forecast to fall from $14.4bn in 2025 to $205m in 2031, a near-total erosion of 98.6% and one of the largest single-asset LOE events in the industry. The decline is not gradual but geographically sequenced: European exclusivity loss in May 2026 triggers the first wave of compression, followed by the far larger US cliff in 2028, which drives the steepest absolute revenue destruction. In total, the brand is projected to shed $14.2bn over six years.
