Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s third-quarter sales increased 8% in the third quarter as blood clot drug Eliquis captured more market share and Opdivo received approvals to treat more types of cancer.

The New York-based drugmaker said Opdivo's third-quarter sales jumped 42% year over year to $528 million, while revenue from Eliquis increased 28% to $345 million. Bristol-Myers said Eliquis has now become the number one oral anticoagulant in the U.S., surpassing warfarin, which is also marketed by the company as Coumadin.

Investors nevertheless wondered during the company's Oct. 25 earnings call whether Opdivo will be able to keep up with Merck & Co. Inc.'s blockbuster drug Keytruda. The medicine in combination with Pfizer Inc.'s Inlyta showed strong results in a late-stage study among patients with advanced kidney cancer.

Bristol-Myers executives dismissed the queries and expressed confidence in Opdivo's performance, specifically in kidney cancer, melanoma, lung cancer, colon cancer and bladder cancer.

As the lung cancer market gets increasingly crowded, Opdivo's sales got a boost in the third quarter from treating other cancer types including kidney cancer, and as an additional treatment for melanoma, a type of skin cancer. Sales of Opdivo for lung cancer are expected to decrease outside of the U.S. as these new indications expand, Chief Commercial Officer Christopher Boerner told investors. Boerner said adjuvant melanoma plays an important role for the company in the U.S., where Opdivo is now launching for that indication. The company expects to see continued diversification of the U.S. business going forward.

But Opdivo received a blow earlier in October with the release of negative results from a phase 3 study, which showed that Opdivo was not better than chemotherapy in prolonging the lives of patients with an aggressive type of small-cell lung cancer. This raised uncertainty for the FDA's recent approval of Opdivo to treat the disease based on an early stage study.

Bristol-Myers' second-biggest cancer drug, Yervoy, which the company has been offering in combination with Opdivo, has also seen a sales boost with new indications. The company faced a setback in June when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration extended its decision date for the combination as an initial treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

"We continue to believe that Opdivo plus Yervoy has a very competitive profile," said Boerner. "We're compelling on overall survival, we're compelling on complete response rate, and we are more compelling with respect to the safety profile and quality of life."

The FDA ruling came after the company submitted new information from its CheckMate-227 study regarding a sub-group of patients expressing substantial mutations of their tumors. Boerner said a higher expression of these mutations can lead to a better response to the combination treatment, especially for keeping the disease at bay.

"How the competitive data evolves, we'll have to see. But based on what we've seen so far, we feel very good about the competitive profile of Opdivo plus Yervoy in renal cell," Boerner said, speaking to the competition facing the combination therapy.

Besides banking on newer treatments such as a potential psoriasis drug, BMS-986165, to drive growth, Bristol-Myers is also actively looking at mergers and acquisitions to diversify its portfolio.

"This remains a company priority, one that I am very focused on. Our strong balance sheet gives us flexibility in this regard," Chairman and CEO Giovanni Caforio said.