Indications -- Psoriasis/Chronic Inflammation Message Board

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Biotech / Medical : Indications -- Psoriasis/Chronic Inflammation

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From: Icebrg	4/4/2006 6:16:28 PM
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Biogen Idec sells psoriasis drug as it restructures Boston Business Journal - 9:12 AM EDT Tuesday Biogen Idec has sold rights to a psoriasis drug that hasn't met its sales expectations, fulfilling an important part of a restructuring plan first announced in September. The Cambridge, Mass., company (Nasdsaq: BIIB) announced this week that Astellas Pharma US Inc. in Deerfield, Ill., agreed to buy global rights to Amevive. Astellas is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma Inc. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. But Astellas will gain global rights to the drug, and Biogen Idec will continue to make and supply it to the company. Amevive first gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in January 2003. The drug produced more than $48.4 million in revenue during 2005, compared to over $1.5 billion in revenue for its multiple sclerosis drug Avonex. Biogen Idec announced it would sell Amevive in September as part of a wide-ranging restructuring plan that also involved laying-off 650 employees around the world. Those cuts included a loss of about 250 jobs in Cambridge as well as the sale of a California manufacturing facility. Before the announced job cuts, Biogen Idec employed about 1,700 people in Cambridge and 4,000 globally. The reorganization stemmed in part from the loss of sales after Biogen Idec pulled its new MS drug Tysabri from the market last year over safety concerns. The company and Irish co-developer Elan Corp. PLC (NYSE: ELN) say they have since addressed those concerns with regulators and a key FDA panel has approved bringing the drug back to market. The FDA must still formally sign-off on that recommendation. boston.bizjournals.com

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