07.08.09
#6 Biogen Idec
14 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: (617) 679-2000 Fax: (617) 679-2617
www.biogenidec.com
Headcount | 4,700 | |
Year Established | 2003 | |
Biopharma Revenues | $3,968 | +30% |
Royalty Revenues | $116 | +14% |
Total Revenues | $4,098 | +29% |
Net Income | $783 | +23% |
R&D Budget | $1,072 | +16% |
2008 Top Selling Drugs | |||
Drug | Indication | Sales | (+/-%) |
Avonex | MS | $2,203 | +18% |
Rituxan | NHL | $1,128 | +22% |
Tysabri | MS | $589 | +156% |
Account for 99% of total biopharma sales, same as in 2007.
PROFILE
In 2007, Biogen Idec set 2010 as the date to reach a series of business goals. Now I bet management more concerned about being in business that year. BI saw its biopharma revenues leap by 30% last year, but the company made bigger news in recent months when “activist investor” Carl Icahn agitated to break up the company or sell it off. (I chronicled some of this kerfluffle in last year’s report.) This built up to a rancorous proxy fight and shareholder meeting in which Mr. Icahn succeeded in taking over two seats on the company’s board.
Considering he was involved in pushing MedImmune and ImClone into the arms of AZ and Lilly, respectively, I’d suggest they rent, not buy.
Six Years Later
In June 2009, Biogen Idec won an arbitration case against Genentech. Genentech had argued that Biogen’s 2003 merger with Idec constituted a change of control, and thus the new company gave up its rights to “participate in strategic decisions” regarding the development of Rituxan and other anti-CD20 antibodies the companies had been collaborating on. The arbitration panel ruled that the companies have to form a joint development committee of six members — three from each companies — that must unanimously approve development plans for each indication. Glad that only took six years to settle. |
One of those 2010 goals was to have 100,000 patients on Tysabri, the company’s biologic treatment for MS and Crohn’s disease. Unfortunately, the pace of new patients has slowed because of safety concerns. Despite BI and development partner Elan’s fantastic results in trials of MS patients on Tysabri, four cases of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML)cropped up in 2008, and two more cases occurred in June 2009.
Three cases of PML during a clinical trial caused BI to pull Tysabri from the market in 2005; this time around, BI’s being cautious but is still promoting the treatment. The company had approximately 40,000 patients using Tysabri by March 2009. Tysabri revenues climbed 44% in 1Q09 to $165 million.
They used to say that when America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. When rolofylline, Merck’s acute heart failure treatment, failed a big Phase III trial in June 2009, I have a feeling that nausea spread through the offices at BI. One of the company’s top small-molecule prospects, Adentri, is in the same category as rolofylline: adenosine A1 antagonists. Adentri entered Phase III in August 2008 in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) patients with renal insufficiency.
The question is: will there be a BI by the time that clinical trial concludes?
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