BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

That was then; this is now

Totting up Biogen's performance under CEO Scangos

July 25, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

It's impossible to define how much of last week's jump in Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) shares related to CEO George Scangos' pending departure announced Thursday, and how much reflected the strong 2Q16 earnings reported the same day. But after 15 months of clinical and commercial stumbles and a lack of obvious near-term drivers, some investors say the Street was looking for a leadership change.

During Scangos' tenure, Biogen's stock has performed better than every other biotech over $50 billion in market cap, thanks to strong earnings growth and progress with a pipeline that he refocused on neurology and immunology. The shares have risen 506% since June 30, 2010, when it was announced Scangos was taking over the top slot from retiring James Mullen...