Will Biogen Earnings Interrupt the Biotech Bull Market?

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) reported its first-quarter financials before the markets opened Friday. The biotech giant had $3.82 in earnings per share (EPS) on $2.55 billion in revenue, versus Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $3.91 in EPS on $2.66 billion in revenue. The same quarter from the previous year had $2.47 in EPS on $2.13 billion in revenue.

In February 2015, Biogen completed its acquisition of U.K.-based Convergence Pharmaceuticals. Convergence is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with an innovative portfolio of ion channel-modulating product candidates for neuropathic pain, including CNV1014802, a product candidate being developed for trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic orphan disease.

Total multiple sclerosis product sales were nearly $2.1 billion, compared to $1.7 billion in the same quarter last year. The breakdown of this segment, compared to the same quarter of the previous year, was:

• Tecfidera had revenues of $824.9 million, up from $505.7 million
• Avonex had revenues of $692.7 million, down from $761.5 million
• Plegridy had revenues of $61.8 million
• Tysabri had revenues of $462.6 million, up from $441.0 million
• Fampyra had revenues of $20 million, up from $19.0 million

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The Hemophilia segment, consisting of Alprolix and Eloctate, reported revenues of $43.1 million and $53.6 million, respectively.

Other product revenues came from Fumaderm, which had revenues of $13.6 million, down from $15.6 million.

George A. Scangos, Ph.D, CEO of Biogen, said:

In the first quarter, we continued to gain share in the MS market and we believe that our MS product portfolio is well positioned to provide patients the breadth of choices that they need. While we saw moderating patient growth of our oral MS therapy TECFIDERA in the U.S. and Germany, the launch of PLEGRIDY continued to go well, and we have seen continued strong performance from TYSABRI. We believe that our portfolio offers patients leading choices among oral, interferon, and high-efficacy therapies, and we look forward to continued growth in our global market share.

At the end of March, Biogen had cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaling approximately $3.5 billion.

For this quarter, R&D expense was $461 million, compared to $527 million in the same quarter last year.

Shares of Biogen were down 6.5% at $402.30 in early trading Friday. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $480.67 and a 52-week trading range of $275.39 to $480.18.

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