Biogen (BIIB) earnings Q4 2024

Biogen on Wednesday posted fourth-quarter revenue and profit that topped expectations as its cost cuts showed progress and recent products, including its breakthrough Alzheimer’s treatment Leqembi, saw growth. 

However the biotech company’s guidance for the present yr missed Wall Street’s expectations. Biogen issued a full-year 2025 adjusted earnings outlook of $15.25 to $16.25 per share, which fell in need of the $16.34 per share that analysts were anticipating, in keeping with LSEG. That reflects a foreign exchange headwind of 35 cents per share, Biogen said.  

Biogen expects revenue to say no by a “mid-single digit” percentage in 2025 compared with 2024, as sales of its multiple sclerosis products fall. That portion of the business has declined for several quarters as a few of those therapies face generic competition. 

But Biogen expects Leqembi, together with its recent rare disease and depression treatments, to assist offset that sliding revenue this yr. 

Leqembi generated $87 million in revenue for the fourth quarter, including $50 million within the U.S. Analysts had expected the drug to book $67 million in sales, in keeping with estimates from StreetAccount. 

Leqembi, which Biogen shares with the Japanese drugmaker Eisai, became the second drug proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s to win approval within the U.S. in 2023. The therapy’s launch has been gradual resulting from bottlenecks related to diagnostic test requirements, the necessity for normal brain scans and the problem of finding neurologists, amongst other issues. 

Here’s what Biogen reported for the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

• Earnings per share: $3.44 adjusted vs. $3.35 per share expected
• Revenue: $2.46 billion vs. $2.40 billion expected

Biogen booked sales of $2.46 billion for the quarter, which is up around 3% from the year-earlier period. 

The drugmaker posted net income of $266.8 million, or $1.83 per share, for the quarter. That compares with net income of $249.7 million, or $1.71 per share, for a similar period a yr ago. 

Adjusting for one-time items, including certain restructuring charges and costs related to intangible assets, the corporate reported earnings of $3.44 per share.

Biogen first initiated a cost-cutting program in 2023. The corporate expects to generate $1 billion in gross savings, or $800 million net savings, by the top of 2025. 

Also on Wednesday, Royalty Pharma announced an agreement to supply $250 million in research and development funding to Biogen for litifilimab, a key drug in its pipeline that’s being studied to treat lupus. Royalty Pharma, a number one funder of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, can be eligible for regulatory milestones and certain royalties.