Biogen Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Salveen Richter - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : What is your latest thinking on the capacity preference and potential time lines for external BD? And in terms of your growth outlook, just help us understand the balance between the existing pipeline and the assets you could bring in?

Question: Michael Yee - Jefferies - Analyst : Priya, you mentioned on the LEQEMBI slide that one of the important developments is the potential for blood-based diagnostics. And my understanding is that that's coming this year. Can you walk through how important that is in terms of any bottlenecks and specifically whether that totally would be able to replace PET or how that actually works since diagnostics are a little bit complicated?

Question: Tim Anderson - Bank of America - Analyst : On your spend guidance, you're saying $3.9 billion combined R&D and SG&A, which is about $200 million lower than consensus. Revenues are also a little bit lower than consensus so it offsets each other. My question is how much does the Royalty Pharma deal take out of the R&D line in 2025, specifically? I know it's $250 million in aggregate that they'll fund, but what's that relief to 2025 R&D? And then on Royalty Pharma, can we expect Biogen to do more of these off-balance sheet types of transactions with pipeline programs over the next one to two years?

Question: Brian Abrahams - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : On SKYCLARYS, can you elaborate a little bit more on the dynamics you're seeing in the US? Are there ways to accelerate patient identification to meaningfully grow revenue there? Should we be expecting this to more be an ex US international growth product? And how are the hurdles in terms of reimbursement outside the US?

Question: Marc Goodman - Leerink Partners - Analyst : Could you give us a little more flavor on what's happening with SPINRAZA in the US? And the US dynamics and how much inventory is mattering, what's happening with pricing? Just a little more color there. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 12, 2025 / 1:30PM, BIIB.OQ - Q4 2024 Biogen Inc Earnings Call

Question: Paul Matteis - Stifel - Analyst : Chris, if you take a step back now, you got to be at a point, I would think, with ZURZUVAE, SKYCLARYS, LEQEMBI, to some degree, although maybe the variance of outcomes there is a little bit wider. Or at least for the next couple of years, you probably have a pretty good window into the range of outcomes for these products. So I guess taking a step back, do you feel like you can get back to sustainable revenue growth based on what you have internally and what you have high visibility into? Or how important, I guess, is getting a big upside win from the pipeline or buying growth externally via BD?

Question: Umer Raffat - Evercore - Analyst : I want to say thank you to Mike for all your help over time, and welcome to Tim. I have two questions today, if I may. First, maybe for Priya. Priya, in a scenario where Lilly hits Trailblazer Alzheimer's 3 in preclinical on the progression endpoint, how does that factor into your thinking around how you could accelerate time lines for AHEAD 3-45? And also your comfort with the endpoint being used there. And secondly, Chris, maybe a big picture question. It seems like where the valuation stands today around $20 billion in market cap relative to the amount paid for Reata as well as the amount of balance sheet available for an additional deal coming up, I guess, market is almost reflecting somewhat of a view that the M&A choices in the last couple of years may not have been what market was expecting, or perhaps the expectations were higher. I guess, how do you think about all of that? And what learnings are you taking from that into additional capital deployment? Because it will be a very significant move if there were to be a $10 billion deal again.

Question: Christopher Schott - JPMorgan - Analyst : I want to come back to the OpEx space. I know the company is wrapping up its Fit for Growth program and there's some moving pieces here with the Royalty Pharma deal. But as we think about the P&L going forward, is this kind of $3.9 billion or so OpEx space a good rough number to think about for Biogen going forward? Or is there any other color about how to think about margin progression as we think about the next few years?

Question: Evan Seigerman - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Mike, congrats on your retirement. You will be missed. Robin, I'm really looking forward to working with you. And Tim, congrats on your first [bite] in the earnings call; I got that all in. I want to touch very briefly on the use of GLP-1s in Alzheimer's disease. Novo Nordisk has talked a lot about the evoke trial, high risk, high reward. What happens if that hits and this could evolve the standard of care for the kind of prevention of Alzheimer's disease? Priya, maybe would love your thoughts there.

Question: Philip Nadeau - TD Cowen - Analyst : Let me add our congratulations to Mike, Robin, and Tim on their transitions. Just to drill down on the LEQEMBI short-term trajectory a little bit more closely. In Q4, revenue was up 30%, but the revenue recognized was only up $1 million. Can you talk about the dynamics behind that? Were there onetime issues? Or is there an increase in spend that we should project into 2025? And looking at 2025 trends, growth in 2024 was largely driven -- not entirely driven, but largely driven by ex US. Is that replicable in 2025? Or are the low-hanging fruit of those markets already picked?

Question: Michael Yee - Jefferies - Analyst : Thanks, Mike, and thanks, everybody, for your time today. The IR team is available if you've got questions later today. Thank you.