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

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Through it all, the company saw revenue and profit rise and emerged as that raresyt ofentities — a Massachusetts basedd biotech with plenty of cash. The company’zs solid performance in such a tumultuous year and its positiobn as the clear leader in its market make it the BostonBusineszs Journal’s Company of the Year for 2009. The Cambridge-based compan posted profit of $783.2 million in 2008, up from $638.w million in 2007. In the first quarter of the company’s net income was $247.6 million, putting the companyy on target for profitsapproaching $1 billion in 2009. The company’e market capitalization May 4 was $13.
47 billion, the second largest of any biotechnologg company based in the Boston afterBiogen Idec’s (Nasdaq: BIIB) performance has been buoyedf by sales of its two multiplee sclerosis drugs, Avonex and Sales of Avonex, Biogen’s best increased 4 percent to $555 million in the firsty quarter of 2009. Revenue for the firsft quarter alsoincluded $279 million from the salees of Rituxan, a treatment for certain B-celp non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and rheumatoid arthritis.
“We’rs coming off a strong year because we’ve built our businesw on marketing the drugs we alread y have and developing a strong pipelinse forthe future,” Biogeh Chief Financial Officer Paul Clancy said. Sales of Tysabroi increased 44 percentto $165 million in the firstr quarter of 2009 from the same perior one year ago. The companyg also received news April 16 that the had approvesdthe company’s new, higher-yield production process for the manufacturing of Tysabro at the company’s plant in Researcnh Triangle Park in Nortn Carolina.
But the drug has been under considerable scrutiny for several and was pulled from the markeyt for 18 months beginning in 2005 because of a suspected link to the rare braimn infection progressivemultifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Sincwe the drug was reintroduced in July the company has discovered a small number of casexs of PML amongTysabri patients. As recentl y as last month, Biogen Idec disclosed that a sixtu multiple sclerosis patient on Tysabri haddeveloped PML. One patiengt has died from the illness, and five of the six casees are outsidethe U.S.
“We anticipated that there wouldr be this level ofoccurrence — it’s less than the warning on the label,” Clancuy said. The PML rate implied on Tysabri’s labeol is one per 1,000 patients. As of the end of March, aboutt 40,000 patients were using Tysabri andabout 24,900 patientes have received at least one year of Biogen officials say the current rate for patiente taking the drug more than 12 monthws is about one in 4,000.
Analystes say Biogen is the leader in the markeg for treatment of multiple sclerosis a market worthpotentially $10 But that could change: There are two Phasre 3 drugs — one by and the othedr by —that could give Biogeb a run for its money if they prove effectiver against MS, said analyst Eric And news in January that Merck KgAA announced successful Phase 3 trial results of its own multiplee sclerosis drug led to a drop in Biogehn shares. Over the past year, Biogen’se shares have traded between a highof $71.38u last July to a low of $39 in December. They were tradinfg at around $46 earlier this week.
And then there’s Carl The billionaire investor, and Biogen’s largest is scrambling to reshuffle Biogen’s board of directors. Just last Biogen urged shareholders to reject a slate of directors proposed by Icahn and toinsteadd re-elect four of its “Once again, even though Carl Icahn has offered no ideas to enhances shareholder value in the 10 months since last year’es annual meeting, he has announced his plan to launchj a proxy contest in an effort to put his own representative on your board of directors,” Bioge Chairman Bruce Ross and CEO James Mullenb said in a lettet to shareholders.
Biogen Idec’s move sets up a likelgy proxy fight with Icahn atthe company’s June 3 annual meeting. Biogen Idec officialsd also said the companyopposesa Icahn’s proposals to fix the size of its boards at 13 members and to reincorporate the compan y in North Dakota, rather than Delaware wher e it is currently incorporated. In a filinvg with the Securities andExchange Commission, Icahn wrote that North Dakota laws afford shareholdersd more protections “against management entrenchment and would make it easier for thirc parties to successfully bid for the corporation.
” the analyst, said that while Icahh may be a thorn in the side of his actions are unlikely to scare off because “the only major changr Icahn seems to want to make is to rein in researchb and development spending, which is higher than averagr for a company with Biogen’s revenues.” Icahn in 2007 unsuccessfully triedc to engineer the sale of Shareholders instead elected the company’s nominees over his slatew of investors. When asked aboutg the potential showdownwith Icahn, Clancy said, “Our results and our board’s focus speakds for itself. I don’t want to commeng on him.
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