excellent post. here's a bit more via bloomberg.
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Biogen Earned $1.80 in '98; Avonex Sales Up 75%
San Francisco, Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) - Biogen Inc., one of the world's largest biotech companies, said fourth-quarter Avonex sales exceeded $120 million, up about 75 percent from a year earlier, as the best-selling treatment for multiple sclerosis in the U.S. ended a strong year.
That helped the company post record full-year earnings of $1.80 a share, meeting the average estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call Corp., Chairman and Chief Executive James Vincent said. ''It was -- as the song says -- a very good year,'' Vincent said in a presentation at a Hambrecht & Quist conference in San Francisco.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen's stock price has doubled over the past year, buoyed by sales of Avonex, a once-a- week injection that slows progression of disability in relapsing forms of MS, a debilitating disease that attacks the central nervous system. The company is now working to assure investors that such growth will continue in coming years after last month's surprise resignation of Chief Executive James Tobin, who left the company because of differences with Chairman Vincent, who took on the CEO job after Tobin left.
Avonex fourth-quarter sales in the U.S. were more than $85 million, compared to $60 million a year earlier. European sales during the quarter exceeded more than $30 million, more than triple a year earlier.
During all of 1998, Avonex sales exceeded $390 million, Vincent said. ''The near-term prospects of the company are still intact,'' said Akhtar Samad, an analyst with Mehta Partners, which has a near-term ''buy'' recommendation on Biogen shares.
Avonex competes with treatments produced by German drugmaker Schering AG, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of Israel and Ares-Serono SA, Switzerland's third-largest drugmaker.
Biogen shares rose 3 3/4 to 85 3/4 in midafternoon trading. Earlier they rose as high as 86 1/4.
Vincent discussed the results in a presentation to investors at a Hambrecht & Quist health-care conference in San Francisco. The company will formally release its results on Thursday afternoon. |
