Net income rose to $201.2 million, or 67 cents a share, from $108.6 million, or 32 cents, a year earlier, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said today in a statement. Profit excluding certain costs beat analysts' estimates by 9 cents a share.
Revenue rose 26 percent from a year earlier to $893 million as worldwide sales of Tysabri quadrupled. Biogen said it expects 100,000 patients will be taking Tysabri by the end of 2010, which could mean $2.8 billion in annual sales at current prices, according to analysts. The MS drug was cleared in the U.S. last month for an expanded use, Crohn's disease, an inflammation of the intestines.
``It was a very good quarter, they deserve credit,'' said Michael King, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw in New York, in a telephone interview today.
Biogen fell $2.77 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $60.52 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock has gained 23.7 percent in the 12 months before today.
Tysabri generated $129 million in worldwide sales in the quarter, up from $30 million a year earlier. Worldwide sales are split with Biogen's partner, Irish drugmaker Elan Corp. Biogen recorded $90 million of the Tysabri sales in the fourth quarter, the company said. About 21,000 patients worldwide were taking the drug at the end of December.
Reintroduced
Biogen and Elan pulled the drug from the market in February 2005 after two patients developed rare, fatal brain infections. A month later, the companies disclosed a third case of the disorder, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The drug was reintroduced in July 2006 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided the benefits for slowing MS relapses outweighed the risk.
In December, Biogen lost more than $5 billion in market value when it abandoned a plan to sell the company, saying it didn't receive any offers. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn criticized the process last week as ``flawed,'' and nominated three people to the company's 12-member board.
No comments:
Post a Comment