BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : MARCH 27, 2000 ISSUE
COVER STORY Q&A with Biogen's Jim Vincent "We're the only biotech company with a global strategy" Founded in 1978, Biogen Inc. is the nation's oldest independent biotech company. The Cambridge-based company invented hepatitis-B vaccine and alpha interferon, each of which generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Its recent success is largely due to Avonex, currently the leading drug used to treat multiple sclerosis. Biogen CEO and Chairman Jim Vincent recently spoke with Business Week Boston Correspondent Rochelle Sharpe. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow: Q: What products are driving the company's growth? A: The primary product that we're selling on the marketplace, introduced in 1996, is Avonex, the leading treatment for multiple sclerosis [MS] in the world. It clearly is the drug of choice. It's grown to about three-quarters of a billion dollars in revenue. We have 60% of the market share. Q: Why is Avonex so important? A: This is the first time a drug has been available that really treats the disease. And continuing research has really changed the practice of how you treat MS. Research at the Cleveland Clinic showed that MS patients in early stages of disease have brain shrinkage and cell death. Avonex reduced brain shrinkage by more than 50% within a two-year period of time. We demonstrated that, at the first sign of a suspected MS condition, you can significantly reduce the chances you will convert to a full MS patient. It has taken quite some time to develop this market, because many MS patients are in denial. The availability of treatment has brought people out of the closet. When we first introduced the drug, the estimate for the number of patients was 250,000. Now, those estimates are up to around 350,000 to 400,000 in the U.S. and 1 million patients worldwide. Q: Why is your drug better than your competitors'? A: The real advantage of our drug is that it's a beta interferon, a naturally occurring substance in your body. We're making exactly the same product that appears in your body. We're the only company that does that. Our drug is a once-a-week injection. Our competitors' drugs must be injected three times a week or five times a week. The main side effects with interferon are flu-like symptoms. Our competitors' drugs have caused reactions at injection sites, flushing, and cardiac events. Q: Why have you been one of the few biotech companies to have a real success story? A: We're one of the few that has a product on the market that we are selling ourselves. We have stuck very carefully to a strategy to create novel drugs -- something with a therapeutic impact that is substantially greater than anything preceded it. We have a very focused market. We can sell, market, and distribute our product with much smaller investment than if we had to call on 5,000 or 10,000 physicians. We generate high revenues, and our sales and marketing expenses are well below the industry -- 60% of the large pharmaceutical companies. Our investment in research is much higher than most companies. We put 30% of our sales dollars back into research, twice as much as other companies in the industry. And we have one of the best research organizations in the entire industry. We're the only biotech company with a global strategy. We market directly in the U.S. and Europe. Q: Why do you have such a big focus on research and development? A: We are a smaller company which needs to have a higher flow-rate of new products in this stage of our development. We are trying to accelerate that growth as much as we can, so we want to maximize the number of products. We spend $300 million on research. Q: What sort of challenges do you face going forward? A: Anytime you're in the pharmaceutical business, it's all about new products. The next product we have coming is Amevive, which is in phase-3 trials. It's an immune-system modulator, and its first indication is for psoriasis. What we think we have here is a product that will have a significant impact on disease and a side-effect profile that's excellent. It's able to clear 25% of patients' skin within 12 weeks. In the circles of dermatology, this is quite remarkable. We hope to have it in the market by 2002. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The 50 Best Performers COVER IMAGE: The BW 50: The Best Performers TABLE: The 50 Best Performers TABLE: Total Return TABLE: Sales TABLE: Net Margin TABLE: Earnings Decline TABLE: Earnings Growth CHART: The Fast-Changing BW 50: A Breakdown by Industry TABLE: Return on Equity Follow the Leaders CHART: Beating the Indexes--Again Great Performances, and How to Spot Them Sifting for Clues TABLE: How to Pan for Gold TABLE: Business Week's Performance Rankings of the S&P 500 (.pdf) TABLE: Business Week's Industry Rankings of the S&P 500 (.pdf) TABLE: Alphabetical Index (.pdf) ONLINE ORIGINAL: Q&A with Biogen's Jim Vincent ONLINE ORIGINAL: Q&A with AOL's Steve Case ONLINE ORIGINAL: Q&A with General Dynamics' Nicholas Chabraja ONLINE ORIGINAL: Q&A with MBNA's Charles Cawley ONLINE ORIGINAL: Q&A with Pfizer's William Steere ONLINE ORIGINAL: Q&A with Kansas City Southern's Landon Rowland ONLINE ORIGINAL: Q&A with Omnicom Group's John Wren INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

Copyright 2000-2009, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Use   Privacy Notice