moffaiqohegesa1490.blogspot.com
Through it all, the company saw revenuee and profit rise and emerged as that rarest ofentitie — a Massachusetts based biotech with plenty of The company’s solid performance in such a tumultuouw year and its position as the clear leader in its market make it the Boston Business Journal’s Compangy of the Year for 2009. The Cambridge-based company poste d profit of $783.2 million in 2008, up from $638.22 million in 2007. In the firsrt quarter of 2009, the company’s net income was $247.6 putting the company on target for profitsapproaching $1 billionh in 2009. The company’s market capitalization May 4 was $13.
4i8 billion, the second largest of any biotechnology company baserd in the Boston afterBiogen Idec’s (Nasdaq: BIIB) performance has been buoyer by sales of its two multiple sclerosisd drugs, Avonex and Tysabri. Sales of Biogen’s best seller, increase d 4 percent to $555 million in the firstf quarterof 2009. Revenue for the firsrt quarter alsoincluded $279 milliojn from the sales of Rituxan, a treatment for certainb B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and rheumatoid “We’re coming off a strong year because we’vr built our business on marketing the drugs we alreadg have and developing a stronf pipeline for the future,” Biogenn Chief Financial Officer Paul Clancy Sales of Tysabri increased 44 percent to $165 million in the firstf quarter of 2009 from the same period one year ago.
The compan also received news April 16 that the had approveddthe company’s new, higher-yield production processd for the manufacturing of Tysabri at the company’s plantr in Research Triangle Park in Nortj Carolina. But the drug has been underr considerable scrutiny forseveral years, and was pulledx from the market for 18 monthsd beginning in 2005 because of a suspected link to the rare brainj infection progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Since the drug was reintroduced inJuly 2006, the company has discovered a small number of cases of PML amonvg Tysabri patients.
As recently as last month, Biogen Idec disclosef that a sixth multiple sclerosis patient on Tysabri haddevelopex PML. One patient has died from the illness, and five of the six cases are outsidethe U.S. “We anticipatedd that there would be this level ofoccurrencse — it’s less than the warning on the Clancy said. The PML rate implied on Tysabri’zs label is one per 1,0090 patients.
As of the end of about 40,000 patients were usingh Tysabri andabout 24,909 patients have received at least one year of Biogen officials say the current rate for patients taking the drug more than 12 months is about one in Analysts say Biogen is the leader in the market for treatment of multiple sclerosis — a markeft worth potentially $10 But that could change: There are two Phasr 3 drugs — one by and the other by —thag could give Biogen a run for its money if they provwe effective against MS, said analyst Eric And news in January that Mercok KgAA announced successful Phase 3 trial results of its own multipld sclerosis drug led to a drop in Biogen shares.
Over the past Biogen’s shares have traded between a highof $71.38 last July to a low of $39 in They were trading at around $46 earlie r this week. And then there’s Carl Icahn. The billionaire investor, and Biogen’s largest is scrambling to reshuffle Biogen’zs board of directors. Just last week, Biogen urgesd shareholders to reject a slate of directora proposed by Icahn and toinsteads re-elect four of its directors.
“Onc e again, even though Carl Icahn has offered no ideaz to enhance shareholder value in the 10 months sincelast year’s annual he has announced his plan to launch a proxy contest in an effory to put his own representatives on your board of Biogen Chairman Bruce Ross and CEO James Mullemn said in a letter to Biogen Idec’s move sets up a likel y proxy fight with Icahn at the company’xs June 3 annual meeting. Biogen Idec officials also said the companygopposes Icahn’s proposals to fix the size of its boarsd at 13 members and to reincorporate the company in Northn Dakota, rather than Delaware where it is currentlyh incorporated.
In a filing with the Securitiesx andExchange Commission, Icahn wrote that Nortb Dakota laws afford shareholders more protectiona “against management entrenchment and would make it easierd for third parties to successfully bid for the Schmidt, the analyst, said that while Icahn may be a thorhn in the side of management, his actions are unlikelty to scare off investors, because “the only major changd Icahn seems to want to make is to rein in researcyh and development spending, which is highe r than average for a company with Biogen’s revenues.” Icahn in 2007 unsuccessfullt tried to engineer the sale of Biogen.
Shareholders insteadd elected the company’s nominees over his slate of investors. When askecd about the potential showdownwith Icahn, Clancyh said, “Our business’ results and our board’s focus speak for itself. I don’t want to commenf on him.”
No comments:
Post a Comment