The good news, however, is simply that the bad news -- a temporary but massive flood of generic copies in the U.S. -- is disappearing. The generic onslaught played havoc with the New York drugmaker's sales and profit during the second half of 2006, and it will have a diminished effect for the first quarter of 2007.

Generic copies "will run out any day," said Joseph Tooley, of A.G. Edwards, in a report to clients earlier this month. Canada's Apotex sold generic copies for three weeks in August before being stopped by a court order.

The injunction remains in effect while a judge decides whether Apotex infringed on the Plavix patent held by Sanofi-Aventis (SNY - commentary - Cramer's Take), which licenses U.S. marketing rights to Bristol-Myers. A decision is expected during the second half of the year.

But even a comeback for Plavix won't improve the first quarter of 2007 vs. the same period last year. The Wall Street consensus calls for a profit of 23 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $4.33 billion vs. a profit of 32 cents, excluding items, on revenue of $4.67 billion.

The travails of Plavix aren't solely to blame for the decline in profit and sales. The first quarter of 2006 included sales of the cholesterol-fighter Pravachol when it still had U.S. patent protection. Pravachol went off patent in April 2006.