Biogen CEO Chris Viehbacher: Immunology is a natural fit at biotech, calls for ‘reinvention’

From Chris Viehbach­er’s van­tage point, Bio­gen was nev­er re­al­ly a neu­ro­science com­pa­ny.

Bio­gen has launched a sig­nif­i­cant re­vamp un­der Viehbach­er, in­clud­ing the re­cent hire of Jane Gro­gan, an im­mu­nol­o­gist, as its new head of re­search. And on Thurs­day, the CEO point­ed to the com­pa­ny’s his­to­ry in mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis as an in­di­ca­tor that the com­pa­ny has long been fo­cused on im­munol­o­gy.

“I don’t think we’re go­ing to get in­to” rheuma­toid arthri­tis, Viehbach­er said Thurs­day at the STAT Sum­mit, “but mov­ing in­to im­munol­o­gy is a nat­ur­al ad­ja­cen­cy for us, and so is rare dis­ease.”

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