Biogen on Wednesday reported a first-quarter profit that exceeded estimates as the Cambridge drug maker cut costs and sales of its closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, Leqembi, surpassed expectations.
The biotech reported an adjusted profit of $3.67 per share for the first quarter, compared with analysts’ estimates of $3.45 per share. Shares of Biogen closed up 4.6 percent on Wednesday.
Much of the attention in the earnings report focused on Leqembi, which was developed by Biogen and its Japanese business partner, Eisai. It is the first drug that experts agree modestly slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in people with mild cognitive impairment.
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Although Leqembi was fully approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in July, its launch has been slow. Biogen attributes that partly to the time it takes for health care providers to set up intravenous infusion centers and for doctors to confirm that patients are eligible through brain scans and other medical tests.
The medicine, which is administered every other week, generated about $19 million in sales for the quarter, compared with $10 million for all of last year. One analyst had predicted $14 million in sales for the quarter.
“We see momentum building at a steady pace for Leqembi,” Biogen chief executive Christopher Viehbacher said in a statement.
Biogen didn’t specify how many patients are on the new drug but reported in February that about 2,000 were taking the medicine nationwide.
The biotech said the total number of patients on the drug nearly tripled since the end of 2023. A significant increase occurred in March, which contributed over 20 percent of the total patients now on the drug, the company said.
Viehbacher said the company plans to expand its US sales force by 30 percent to ramp up marketing of Leqembi, which Biogen and Eisai hope will ultimately be a blockbuster.
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Leqembi’s annual price tag is $26,500 per patient. Medicare has agreed to cover the cost of the drug for enrollees who meet the government insurer’s criteria: They must be diagnosed with mild Alzheimer’s and have documented evidence of a sticky toxic protein called amyloid, which forms plaques in the brains of patients.
Biogen is focusing on newer drugs to spur growth for the next few years, as its multiple sclerosis drugs — long the mainstay of the company — have faced increasing generic competition.
Last July, Biogen announced it was acquiring Reata Pharmaceuticals, a Texas-based rare disease biotech, for $7.3 billion. Biogen wanted Reata’s drug Skyclarys, the first treatment for the rare, inherited neurologic disorder Friedreich’s ataxia. Skyclarys had been approved by the FDA earlier in the year and carried sales potential of $1.5 billion in 2030, according to analysts.
Skyclarys recorded sales of $78 million in the first quarter, above estimates of $72.3 million.
Viehbacher said Biogen is open to making other acquisitions. Although known as a neuroscience company, he said in a call with analysts, “my personal view is that [Biogen] is not diversified enough for a company our size.” He said he would like to see Biogen expand further into immunology — multiple sclerosis is a disease of the immune system, he noted — and into treatments for rare diseases.
Viehbacher became CEO in late 2022. Last July, Biogen announced that it planned to cut about 1,000 jobs — roughly 11 percent of its global workforce — and rejigger its priorities. The firm is seeking to become more nimble as part of a program it calls “Fit for Growth.” The effort is supposed to generate about $1 billion in operating expense savings by 2025.
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Biogen is reinvesting the savings into research to develop treatments for other conditions, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease, Viehbacher said.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.