Older Drug Lifts Biogen Idec’s Net Income to $34.5 Million

Biogen Idec Inc., the company that suspended sales of its Tysabri multiple sclerosis drug in February, said second-quarter profit rose to $34.5 million, lifted by its older multiple sclerosis medicine, Avonex.

Net income climbed to 10 cents a share from less than a cent a share, or $827,000, a year earlier when the company had merger-related expenses. Revenue rose 12% to $605.6 million, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company said Tuesday in a statement.

Avonex sales jumped 10% to $381.8 million, the company said. Biogen suspended Tysabri after it was linked to fatal nerve damage, leaving the company dependent on its 9-year-old Avonex treatment and 8-year-old Rituxan cancer medicine.

“Avonex is a pretty old product seeing increased competition, and Rituxan is kind of an old story,” Jon Fisher, a portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management in Minneapolis, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. Fisher said that without new products, “it’s kind of tough to get comfortable investing aggressively.” His firm doesn’t own Biogen shares.

The company’s shares have plunged 42% this year because of the Tysabri withdrawal. Biogen shares rose 32 cents to $38.82 on Tuesday.

Excluding some items, Biogen said it would have earned 43 cents a share, beating the 36-cent average estimate of 27 analysts in a Thomson First Call survey.

Biogen and its partner Elan Corp. of Ireland won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to sell Tysabri in November. The companies halted sales after the drug was linked to two cases of an often-fatal nervous-system disorder called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The companies are still reviewing whether to resume sales of the drug.