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Biogen looks to spin off hemophilia business to focus on neurology medicines

Biogen is looking to spin off its hemophilia business to focus on developing medicines for neurological disorders.

Biogen Spin off

The US based biotechnology company plans to make hemophilia business a publicly traded independent company, so that each of the company will focus on their respective areas of therapeutics expertise.

Biogen will announce the name of the new company later.

The new company will focus its attention on discovery and development of drugs for the treatment of hemophilia.

It will also continue to continue to develop and commercialize ELOCTATE and ALPROLIX as per the existing collaboration with Swedish Orphan Biovitrum.

ELOCTATE and ALPROLIX are indicated for treatment of hemophilia A and B, respectively and generated revenue of $640m during last year ending 31 March, 2016.

Biogen chief executive officer George Scangos said: "We expect that the new company will be a leader in discovering, developing, and commercializing innovative therapies for hemophilia, built on remarkable science and a deep understanding of how to continually improve treatment for patients.

"Our expanding hemophilia business continues to perform very well. ELOCTATE and ALPROLIX provide meaningful benefits for people living with hemophilia and continue to gain market share.

"We believe that the best way to realize the full potential of this growing and vital business is to enable it to operate independently with a management team dedicated to providing therapies to people living with hemophilia."

After the formation of the new company it plans to develop medicines based on XTEN technology for clinical trial in the first half of 2017.

It will also speed up development of bispecific antibodies and hemophilia-related gene therapy programs.

The new company will also carry out additional research to assess its early data that suggest ELOCTATE’s potential to rapidly induce immune tolerance in hemophilia patients who develop inhibitors.

Biogen believes that the spinoff will help both the companies focus on their core therapies and drug pipeline as well as quickly address changing developments and global opportunities in their respective patient markets.

In addition, it will help both the companies adopt distinct capital allocation strategies and capital structures and help the company achieve operating efficiencies.

The new company will be led by John G. Cox, who is currently Biogen’s executive vice president of Pharmaceutical Operations & Technology.

Cox said: "When Biogen brought ELOCTATE and ALPROLIX to market in 2014, they represented the first major treatment advances in nearly two decades for people living with hemophilia.

"With a team that is solely dedicated to hemophilia, we will have the potential to transform the way hemophilia patients are treated."

The spin-off is planned to be completed by the end of 2016 or early 2017 and it will be headquartered in the Boston area.


The new company will be headquartered in the Boston area. Photo courtesy of 2016 Biogen