By Deena Beasley
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Biogen expects income from new launches to exceed its present gross sales by 2028 and doesn’t really feel the necessity to chase further enterprise growth offers, the corporate’s CEO mentioned.
“The view on the market within the analyst group is that the way forward for Biogen depends upon the following deal that we do and that is not a view that we share inside Biogen,” CEO Chris Viehbacher instructed Reuters in an interview on Monday throughout the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Convention in San Francisco.
Final Friday, Biogen supplied to purchase Sage Therapeutics, its advertising accomplice on a drug to deal with postpartum despair. Sage noticed its share value fall round 76% final yr after a collection of scientific setbacks.
Viehbacher declined to touch upon the transaction, citing authorized restrictions.
Shares of Biogen have dropped about 42% over the past yr.
“Whereas the deal could make monetary sense for Biogen, we predict it does little to alter the narrative across the firm, and extra revenue-generating offers are wanted to alter the corporate’s development profile,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman mentioned in a analysis notice.
Viehbacher mentioned Biogen as “gained conviction” on the energy of its present pipeline, together with amyloid-targeting Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi and BIIB080, an experimental drug that targets tau, a distinct protein discovered within the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers.
“We’re doubling down in Alzheimer’s,” the CEO mentioned, noting that information is predicted this yr on an FDA submitting for subcutaneous Leqembi and use of the drug as upkeep remedy.
He acknowledged that Leqembi gross sales haven’t lived as much as the loftiest expectations, however mentioned the trajectory is stable and the corporate is shifting its advertising technique to focus on newly-diagnosed sufferers.
Viehbacher mentioned Biogen additionally has late-stage research underway with felzartamab in uncommon immune-related indications together with kidney transplant sufferers and for experimental lupus medication.
“It’s laborious to search out property price paying for … there’s nonetheless an expectation of some fairly excessive premiums out there,” he mentioned.
The CEO mentioned Biogen has “groups of individuals” on the healthcare convention this week. Finally yr’s assembly, these groups checked out 100 firms and ended up doing two offers: a collaboration to discover molecular glue degraders with Neomorph and the acquisition of Human Immunology Biosciences.
(Reporting By Deena Beasley)