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Biotech / Medical : Biogen -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: William Partmann who wrote (1075)	7/8/1999 9:49:00 PM
From: dmkst1	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1686

anybody hear the conference call? I've liked the run in the stock but what I'm itching for in some anecdotal antova data for lupus and/or transplant. With all the positive data in the literature surrounding antova for transplant that data if positive in humans would make the human genome sciences move look like nothing. If the # number is available could someone please post it. JIMB

To: William Partmann who wrote (1075)	7/9/1999 11:27:00 AM
From: Beltropolis Boy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1686

apparently, jimmy v was on the tube yesterday. i didn't catch it, but fwiw, following is the CNBC transcript. here's a link to the aud & vid replays if you're a multimedia type. mktnews.nasdaq.com\\www\nasdaq\news\msnbc\1999\7\9\NASDAQ_0750_22834.htm&usymbol=BGEN&logo=True&companyname=Biogen%2C+Inc%2E ----- CNBC - SQUAWK BOX INTERVIEW WITH BIOGEN CHAIRMAN AND CEO JIM VINCENT JULY 8, 1999 SUMMARY: Vincent comments on the recent boom in sales of the company's Multiple Sclerosis drug, Avonex. Vincent comments on the company's stock repurchasing program. Mark: After the bell yesterday, Biogen posted a second quarter profit of 34 cents a share excluding a charge. That's two cents better than analysts' were looking for and 13 cents better than the year-ago. Sales of the company's moneymaker, Avonex, which treats relapsing multiple sclerosis, those sales jumped 67%. Shares of Biogen rose more than two points in anticipation of the earnings news yesterday, closing at 66 just shy of its high. Here to tell us what else the company has in the pipeline, and how it's going to stay at the top of this biotech boom is Jim Vincent, Chairman and CEO at Biogen. Good to see you again. Good morning, Mark. Mark: Wall Street caught by surprise by 67% jump in Avonex, where you? Our sales momentum continues to increase at a rate that no, we were not surprised. Mark: Is this a case of you being the only one out there with a product? No, this is a market growth story as well as Avonex. The science that has been published in the past year demonstrating the brain cell death and brain shrinkage associated with MS starting at a very early time, at two years. And the publication of data that shows it reduces that brain shrinkage by 50% is changing the prescribing habits of physicians and the willingness of the patient to step forward. It has driven the sales to a level of 70% or above in the last four quarters and the high 40's to the mid 50's sales increases year over year in the U.S. and still increasing. Mark: Let me see if I can get you in trouble with your own lawyers. How much of this is sustainable? We think this market growth story has a lot of legs. I've said publicly over the past six months, that we've set an internal target in the next few years of having a hundred thousand patients, which would equate to a billion-dollar drug. Joe: As a spokesperson for the industry, you recall in the '90s the sector of drug price fixing from the Federal Government cast a pall on the entire industry. There's some proposals, one in Massachusetts, I saw the other day, and one on the federal level that could perhaps hurt the industry in a similar way. Are you worried about what they are talking about now and what it might do to drug development? We support the drug benefit for the Medicare program and it's just a question of how it can be done. I believe there are proposals on the table how it can be done through private sector mechanisms. If it is not done that way, a number of very negative things happen. First of all, the government decided what drug seniors will get and as you pointed out in '94, if the markets think we are doing anything leading to price controls, it devastates the industry and destroy it as we know it today. Joe: Are you still content with your research and development capabilities without making an acquisition? The reason I ask, the news yesterday from Human Genome, concerning genomics. That technology platform seems like its going to be validated. Don't you need to get there yourself? We believe that we are developing the technology platform in Biogen. We have been doing that a number of years. We just don't talk a lot about it to support the drug discovery effort and access that technology very, very well. Gerald Klauer: Mr. Vincent, this is Gerry Klauer. For prospective investors who may not know your company well, what does your balance sheet look like now. I assume you are throwing off a lot of cash. What are you doing with it other than the R&D area? We have over $500 million in cash and growing. We announced a stock repurchase program for some of the cash in the future. We don't believe in acquisition of other biotech companies and running them as going concerns, but we are very aggressive in purchasing and buying and doing licensing deals of either technologies or products. Gerald Klauer: What about the CEO search? Aren't you getting tired? You were there years ago, they had to bring you back. Are you going to find a new guy? I'm not quite 60 yet, so I have a lot of energy. Joe: I'm tired and I'm in my early 40s. We are on the same track when I announced in January or December when I stepped back in the role. I felt I had the management team in place to step back in one to two years. I believe we are on that track. Mark: Thanks to Jim Vincent, Chairman and CEO at Biogen.