Biogen Inc. is keen to fill in gaps in its pipeline, CEO and director Michel Vounatsos said during the company's presentation at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare conference in New York.
"The fact that there is no CFO nowadays doesn't stop the organization. We are evaluating many prospects," he said.
Biogen's former CFO Paul Clancy left the company this June for the same position at Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
"Biogen is first looking at how we can consolidate the inner R&D capability but at the same time, complement that with new molecules, since we realize that we have gaps in the pipe. So we don't stop. We move forward. More to come," Vounatsos said.
The biopharmaceutical company has made a few pipeline product acquisitions this year, including a Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. progressive supranuclear palsy drug and a stroke medicine from Remedy Pharmaceuticals Inc.
In the past, Biogen focused more on early stage assets, Vounatsos acknowledged, but he signaled that it may be willing to look at more developed targets now.
"I think that we have the responsibility to look at both," he said.
Management has previously said that late-stage assets could be a focus.
The biopharmaceutical company is interested in expanding its rare and orphan disease focus, Michael Ehlers, executive vice president and head of research and development, had said during the company's second-quarter earnings call in July.
Biogen's portfolio largely rests on neurological and neuromuscular disease, with multiple sclerosis treatments traditionally leading sales. The launch of Spinraza, a new spinal muscular atrophy medicine, helped lead a revenue spike in the second quarter.
The company is working aggressively to maintain its position.
Vounatsos said Biogen's position with pharmacy-benefit managers, the middlemen that make drug coverage decisions for millions, has improved for the upcoming year with relatively little price erosion on products. He pointed to CVS Health Corp.'s recent decision to add two of Biogen's multiple sclerosis drugs, Avonex and Plegridy, to its list of covered medicines for the upcoming year.
"We don't stop here," he said, noting that in the second quarter, the company signed four value-based contracts with payers. The contracts, such as a July agreement with Abarca Health, are based around outcomes or patient response to specific drugs.
Vounatsos said the agreements are important for learning more about the disease and having "skin in the game" when it comes to relapse.
"We don't have the result yet of the pilot [contracts], it will take some months. But the payers are very pleased with this attitude. They open much more the opportunity to partner on solution and services," he said.