07.01.10
#6 - Biogen Idec
14 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: (617) 679-2000
Fax: (617) 679-2617
www.biogenidec.com
Headcount | 4,750 | |
Year Established | 2003 | |
Bio/pharma Revenues | $4,247 | +7% |
Royalty Revenues | $124 | +7% |
Total Revenues | $4,377 | +7% |
Net Income | $970 | +24% |
R&D Budget | $1,283 | +20% |
2009 Top Selling Drugs | |||
Drug | Indication | Sales | (+/-%) |
Avonex | multiple sclerosis | $2,323 | +5% |
Rituxan | non-Hodgkin's lymphoma | $1,095 | -3% |
Tysabri | multiple sclerosis | $776 | +32% |
Account for 99% of total bio/pharma sales, same as in 2008.
PROFILE
For the third straight year, Biogen Idec's story is tied into activist shareholder Carl Icahn's attempts at getting the company to sell itself for parts. Mr. Icahn gave up his latest proxy fight when BI put one of his nominees on its board. He now has three people on the board, and continues to agitate for breaking up BI into two pieces — neurology and cancer — and selling off to bigger pharma companies.
With a challenge like this, BI could use a sure hand at the rudder. Unfortunately, chief executive officer and 21-year Biogen veteran James C. Mullen retired from the company in June. The company reported that it’s close to naming a successor, but also noted that chief operating officer and 16-year vet Robert A. Hamm will also depart BI at the end of 2010. Moves like this doesn’t leave me optimistic that there’ll be a Biogen Idec in a couple of years.
Shortly before press time, BI announced that its new CEO would be George Scangos, who was previously the chief exec of Exelixis. Critics immediately jumped on Mr. Scangos’ lack of experience running a company with commercial operations, but I think BI has brought the same number of products to market in the past six years that Exelixis has, so maybe he can bring BI a kick in the R&D pants.
BI tried to make a hostile takeover of Facet Biotech in September 2009. The move would have given BI full ownership of MS treatment daclizumab, which it’s co-developing with Facet. Over the weeks, BI raised its bid from $14.50 a share to $17.50, but gave up in December 2009. Three months later, Abbott Labs snapped Facet up at $27 a share, for a net of $450 million. Hello, partner!
So what’s going well for BI? Tysabri continues to add patients, and very few of them are developing the fatal side effect that initially got Tysabri yanked from the market. And with 1Q10 revenues of $292 million (+28%), Tysabri is poised to become BI’s third billion-dollar drug. (Or second, if Rituxan sales continue to slide.) It’s also in the midst of an 1,800-person trial to test the effects of switching MS patients from Copaxone or Rebif to Tysabri.
In September 2009, BI was issued a patent on the use of beta interferon, used in the company's MS treatment Avonex. In May 2010, it filed an infringement suit against several competitors in its MS arena: Rebif (Pfizer/Serono), Betaseron (Bayer), and Extavia (Novartis). Reportedly, BI is demanding royalties from the other drugs' sales, not withdrawal from the market. Extavia's a new release (approved August 2009), but the other two products add up to more than $3 billion in annual sales, so a settlement could lead to a good revenue stream for BI.
Or whoever ends up owning them.
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