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Through it all, the companyt saw revenue and profit rise and emerged as that raresg ofentities — a Massachusettw based biotech with plenty of cash. The company’z solid performance in such a tumultuous year and its positiobn as the clear leader in its market make it the BostomBusiness Journal’s Company of the Year for 2009. The Cambridge-basee company posted profit of $783.2 million in 2008, up from $638.2 million in 2007. In the first quartert of 2009, the company’sd net income was $247.6 putting the company on target for profitwsapproaching $1 billion in 2009. The company’s market capitalization May 4was $13.
48 billion, the second largest of any biotechnology companu based in the Boston area, aftetr Biogen Idec’s (Nasdaq: BIIB) performance has been buoyed by sales of its two multiplre sclerosis drugs, Avonex and Tysabri. Sales of Biogen’s best seller, increased 4 percen t to $555 million in the first quarterof 2009. Revenuw for the first quarter alsoincluded $279 million from the sales of a treatment for certain B-cell non-Hodgkin’ss lymphomas and rheumatoid arthritis.
“We’re coming off a strong year because we’ve built our businessz on marketing the drugs we already have and developing a strong pipelinse forthe future,” Biogen Chief Financiap Officer Paul Clancy Sales of Tysabri increasex 44 percent to $165 million in the firstg quarter of 2009 from the same perio one year ago. The company also receivedr news April 16 that the had approveethe company’s new, higher-yield production procesd for the manufacturing of Tysabri at the company’s plant in Researcn Triangle Park in North Carolina.
But the drug has been underr considerable scrutiny for several and was pulled from the market for 18 monthes beginning in 2005 because of a suspectedx link to the rare brain infection progressivemultifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Sincee the drug was reintroduced in July the company has discovered a smallo number of cases of PML amongTysabri patients. As recently as last Biogen Idec disclosed that a sixth multiple sclerosis patient on Tysabri haddeveloped PML. One patienft has died from the illness, and five of the six cases are outsidrthe U.S. “We anticipated that there would be this level ofoccurrenced — it’s less than the warning on the Clancy said.
The PML rate implieed on Tysabri’s label is one per 1,000 As of the end of about 40,000 patients were using Tysabri andabout 24,900 patients have receivex at least one year of Biogen officials say the current rate for patients takinb the drug more than 12 monthes is about one in 4,000. Analystz say Biogen is the leader in the market for treatment of multiplesclerosis — a market worth potentially $10 But that could There are two Phase 3 drugz — one by and the othed by —that could give Biogen a run for its monegy if they prove effective against MS, said analyst Eric And news in January that Merck KgAA announcedc successful Phase 3 trial results of its own multiple sclerosise drug led to a drop in Biogen shares.
Over the past Biogen’s shares have traded between a highof $71.38u last July to a low of $39 in They were trading at around $46 earlier this And then there’s Carl Icahn. The billionaire and Biogen’s largest shareholder, is scrambling to reshuffl Biogen’s board of directors. Just last week, Biogen urge d shareholders to reject a slate of directors proposefd by Icahn and toinstead re-elect four of its directors.
“Onced again, even though Carl Icahn has offerecd no ideas to enhance shareholder value in the 10 months sinceslast year’s annual meeting, he has announced his plan to launc h a proxy contest in an effortt to put his own representatives on your boarf of directors,” Biogen Chairman Bruce Ross and CEO Jamesa Mullen said in a letter to Biogen Idec’s move sets up a likely proxyh fight with Icahn at the company’d June 3 annual meeting. Biogen Idec officialw also said the companyhopposes Icahn’s proposals to fix the size of its boards at 13 members and to reincorporate the company in North Dakota, rather than Delaware where it is currently incorporated.
In a filinfg with the Securities andExchange Commission, Icahn wrote that North Dakota laws afford shareholderzs more protections “against management entrenchment and would make it easier for third partiees to successfully bid for the Schmidt, the analyst, said that whil Icahn may be a thornm in the side of his actions are unlikely to scared off investors, because “the only major change Icahnb seems to want to make is to rein in researcu and development spending, which is highert than average for a company with Biogen’s Icahn in 2007 unsuccessfully tried to engineerd the sale of Biogen.
Shareholders instead elected the company’es nominees over his slate of investors. When asked aboutr the potential showdownwith Icahn, Clancy said, “Our business’ resultss and our board’s focus speaks for I don’t want to commenft on him.”
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