Biogen CEO seeks ‘awful lot more collaborations’ to beef up R&D as it launches postpartum depression, Alzheimer’s and ALS drugs

Bio­gen CEO Chris Viehbach­er said the famed Boston biotech is ready to do “an aw­ful lot more col­lab­o­ra­tions” as it seeks to fill out its ear­ly-stage R&D work, but he doesn’t an­tic­i­pate any more big ac­qui­si­tions in the near term as it di­gests the $7.3 bil­lion pur­chase of rare dis­ease drug­mak­er Rea­ta Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, its first M&A for­ay in four years.

Speak­ing to re­porters Wednes­day morn­ing ahead of Bio­gen’s third-quar­ter up­date, Viehbach­er said the com­pa­ny was ahead of con­sen­sus with three-month rev­enues of $2.53 bil­lion, but that’s not what in­vestors and an­a­lysts are fo­cused on. “The street isn’t re­al­ly think­ing about the re­sults that we’re achiev­ing to­day,” he said. “They’re re­al­ly think­ing about where’s Bio­gen go­ing and when does it re­turn to growth.

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