Biogen Plans to Overtake Schering in MS Treatments, FAZ Says
Bloomberg News
March 29, 1999, 3:16 a.m. PT
Frankfurt, March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Biogen Inc., one of the
world's most successful biotechnology companies, expects its
multiple sclerosis treatment Avonex will overtake Schering AG's
Betaferon this year as the top seller in the $1 billion MS drug
market, Biogen Chairman James Vincent said in an interview with
the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. ''In any case, it's our goal
to realize sales of more than $550 million this year and with
that to overtake the current market leader,'' Vincent said in
the interview, pointing out that Biogen had Avonex sales of
about $395 million in 1998 while Germany's Schering sold 720
million deutsche marks ($396 million) worth of Betaferon.
Promising products in Biogen's development pipeline include
Amreve, now in the first clinical-test phase, for the treatment
of psoriasis, skin disorder, and Antova, to stop the body's
rejection of transplanted organs, Vincent told the newspaper.
Biogen's former chief executive Jim Tobin quit last year
after disagreements with Vincent and sold his 719,000 shares in
the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company early this year,
bringing him about $67 million. |
