Company of the Year: Amid takeover rumors and Carl Icahn, Biogen Idec managed to maintain a steady course in 2008 - Boston Business Journal:

firukendu-anchored.blogspot.com
Through it all, the company saw revenuee and profit rise and emergedf as that rarest of entities a Massachusetts based biotech with plenty of The company’s solid performancew in such a tumultuous year and its positionb as the clear leader in its market make it the Bostomn Business Journal’s Company of the Year for 2009. The Cambridge-baseed company posted profit of $783.2 milliojn in 2008, up from $638.2 million in 2007. In the firsrt quarter of 2009, the company’s net incom e was $247.6 million, putting the company on targetf for profitsapproaching $1 billio n in 2009. The company’s market capitalizatiom May 4 was $13.
48 billion, the second largest of any biotechnologyu company based in theBoston area, after Biogenh Idec’s (Nasdaq: BIIB) performance has been buoyed by salew of its two multiple sclerosis drugs, Avonesx and Tysabri. Sales of Avonex, Biogen’s best seller, increased 4 percen to $555 million in the first quarteerof 2009. Revenue for the first quarter alsoincludesd $279 million from the saleas of Rituxan, a treatmenft for certain B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and rheumatoidx arthritis.
“We’re coming off a strong year because we’v e built our business on marketing the drugs we alreadyu have and developing a strong pipeline forthe future,” Biogenj Chief Financial Officer Paul Clancy said. Salezs of Tysabri increased 44 percentto $165 millio n in the first quarter of 2009 from the same period one year ago. The company also received news Aprilk 16 that the had approvedthe company’s new, higher-yieldf production process for the manufacturing of Tysabri at the company’s plantg in Research Triangle Park in Nortu Carolina.
But the drug has been under considerablwe scrutiny for several and was pulled from the market for 18 month beginning in 2005 because of a suspectecd link to the rare braimn infection progressivemultifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Sincs the drug was reintroduced inJuly 2006, the companyy has discovered a small number of cases of PML amonv Tysabri patients. As recentlyu as last month, Biogen Idec disclosed that a sixt h multiple sclerosis patient on Tysabri haddeveloped PML. One patienyt has died from the illness, and five of the six case are outsidethe U.S.
“Ww anticipated that there would be this levelp ofoccurrence — it’s less than the warningg on the label,” Clancy The PML rate implied on Tysabri’s labelp is one per 1,000 patients. As of the end of March, aboutf 40,000 patients were using Tysabri andabout 24,900 patients have received at leasgt one year of therapy. Biogen officials say the currentg rate for patients taking the drug more than 12 monthws is about onein 4,000.
Analysts say Biogeb is the leader in the market for treatmen t of multiplesclerosis — a market worth potentially $10 But that could change: There are two Phase 3 drug s — one by and the other by —that could give Biogen a run for its moneyg if they prove effective against MS, said analyst Eric And news in January that Merck KgAA announcesd successful Phase 3 trial resultd of its own multiple sclerosis drug led to a drop in Biogen shares. Over the past year, Biogen’s shares have tradef between a highof $71.38 last July to a low of $39 in They were trading at arounsd $46 earlier this And then there’s Carl Icahn.
The billionair e investor, and Biogen’s largest shareholder, is scramblingt to reshuffle Biogen’s board of directors. Just last Biogen urged shareholders to reject a slate of director proposed by Icahn and toinstead re-electr four of its directors. “Once again, even thoughy Carl Icahn has offeresd no ideas to enhance shareholder value in the 10 months sincelast year’s annualk meeting, he has announced his plan to launch a proxyu contest in an effort to put his own representativezs on your board of directors,” Biogen Chairman Bruce Ross and CEO Jamees Mullen said in a letter to Biogen Idec’s move sets up a likelgy proxy fight with Icahn at the company’s June 3 annualk meeting.
Biogen Idec officials also said the compangopposes Icahn’s proposals to fix the size of its boardx at 13 members and to reincorporate the companhy in North Dakota, rather than Delaware where it is currentlyh incorporated. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Icahn wrote that Northj Dakota laws afford shareholders moreprotections “againsy management entrenchment and would make it easier for thirrd parties to successfully bid for the corporation.
” the analyst, said that whilr Icahn may be a thorn in the side of his actions are unlikely to scared off investors, because “th only major change Icahnj seems to want to make is to rein in research and development spending, whicgh is higher than average for a compang with Biogen’s revenues.” Icahn in 2007 unsuccessfullt tried to engineer the sale of Biogen. Shareholderzs instead elected the company’ nominees over his slate of investors. When asked aboutt the potential showdownwith Icahn, Clancy “Our business’ results and our board’s focusz speaks for itself. I don’r want to comment on him.
”