Bristol’s $14 Billion Neuroscience Drug Bet Is an Early Letdown

Patty Mulcahy’s current antipsychotic treatment silenced the voices in her head. But the side effects left the 60-year-old schizophrenia patient unable to appreciate simple pleasures. Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s Cobenfy, the first new type of drug for the mental illness in seven decades, offers the potential for both.

But her insurance has refused to cover the therapy that has a list price of about $23,000 a year until she’s tried, and failed, to benefit from other brand name drugs. That’s a problem. Knowing the dangers of ineffective treatment, she’s afraid that she’ll relapse — and have another psychotic break — if ...