Three takeaways and three burning questions for Chris Viehbacher’s cost-cutting future at Biogen

Chris Viehbach­er has un­veiled his most dra­mat­ic move yet as Bio­gen’s CEO, aim­ing to save $1 bil­lion per year with a cost-cut­ting plan to chart a path back to growth for the biotech gi­ant.

On Tues­day’s earn­ings call, Viehbach­er an­nounced a “re­turn to growth” plan that in­cludes low­er­ing the head­count by 1,000 em­ploy­ees over the next cou­ple of years.  Viehbach­er said he hopes to make Bio­gen nim­bler and more cap­i­tal-ef­fi­cient through the changes, in­clud­ing look­ing be­yond neu­rol­o­gy for safer pipeline bets. The im­me­di­ate in­vestor re­ac­tion ap­peared un­con­vinced as Bio­gen’s stock price $BI­IB fell by near­ly 5% af­ter the mar­ket opened.

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