Dive Brief:
- Months after Biogen said it would back out of the hemophilia space, the company said the spinoff would operate under the name Bioverativ.
- The spin out is on track for early 2017 and the publicly-traded company will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol BIVV.
- Bioverativ will continue commercialization of Biogen's Eloctate and Alprolix, for hemophilia A and B, respectively. It will also take charge on development of a number of pipeline candidates.
Dive Insight:
A few short months ago Biogen announced it was shifting directions and shedding its hemophilia business. Shortly thereafter, Biogen's CEO of six years George Scangos, was ousted from the company. Scangos had been a major proponent of the hemophilia business, but the programs—while successful—never seemed to fit with the rest of the company.
With a lack of suitors available to pick up the hemophilia assets from Biogen, the company revealed in May it would spin off its hemophilia drugs into a new public company instead of selling them to another firm.
Yet the business is young and underwhelming in its current state. The two assets the new company will be based around—Alprolix and Eloctate—have only been on the market for a short time. Both were approved by the FDA in 2014 and together brought in about $540 million in sales last year.
The hemophilia market is currently dominated by just a few players, but developments in gene therapy are on track to dramatically change the market as early as 2020. Bioverativ will be in a race to catch up.
Biogen might have the right idea with a spin out if past examples are any indication. AbbVie, which was spun out of Abbott Laboratories in 2013, has rapidly made its own name as a big pharma.
Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb shed its infant formula business into Mead Johnson Nutrition in 2009 and Pfizer split off its animal health business into Zoetis in 2013. Each have become market leaders in their respective categories.