Biogen was founded in Geneva in 1978 as Biotechnology Geneva by five academic molecular biologists: Walter Gilbert of Harvard, Phillip Sharp of MIT, Kenneth Murray of Edinburgh, Heinz Schaller of Heidelberg and Charles Weissmann of Zurich. Gilbert won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Sharp the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Today Biogen is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, trades on Nasdaq as BIIB and reported $9.89 billion of revenue in 2025.
Surviving on royalties (1978 to 1996)
Biogen's early science was strong but it had no product of its own. Weissmann's lab cloned alpha interferon in 1980, licensed to Schering-Plough as Intron A, and Murray and Schaller worked on recombinant hepatitis B antigens used in vaccines. By the mid-1980s the company had about $100 million of accumulated losses. James L. Vincent took over as CEO in 1985, cut costs and relied on licensing income, which paid for development of Avonex. The FDA approved Avonex for relapsing multiple sclerosis in 1996.
Building the MS franchise (1996 to 2019)
The 2003 merger with IDEC Pharmaceuticals created Biogen Idec and brought a share of Rituxan with Genentech, the origin of today's anti-CD20 royalties on Ocrevus. Tysabri was approved in 2004, withdrawn in 2005 after cases of the brain infection PML and relaunched in 2006. The oral drug Tecfidera followed in 2013, and Spinraza, developed with Ionis, became the first spinal muscular atrophy treatment in December 2016. Revenue peaked at $14.38 billion in 2019.
Patent loss and the Aduhelm setback (2020 to 2022)
In 2020 a US court invalidated a key Tecfidera patent, and generic competition cut revenue to $10.98 billion in 2021. In June 2021 the FDA granted accelerated approval to the Alzheimer's antibody Aduhelm despite mixed trial results. Priced at $56,000 a year and later halved, it gained little use once Medicare limited coverage to clinical trials. In 2022 Biogen also paid $900 million to settle a whistleblower kickback suit, and CEO Michel Vounatsos stepped down.
The Viehbacher reset (2022 to today)
Christopher Viehbacher, a former Sanofi CEO, took over in November 2022. Leqembi, developed with Eisai, won full FDA approval in July 2023, and Biogen bought Reata for $7.3 billion to add Skyclarys for Friedreich's ataxia. A Fit for Growth program cut about 1,000 roles, Aduhelm was discontinued in 2024, and HI-Bio was acquired for $1.15 billion upfront. In 2026 the FDA approved high-dose Spinraza and the Leqembi Iqlik autoinjector for starting treatment, and Biogen completed its roughly $5.6 billion acquisition of Apellis on May 14, adding Syfovre and Empaveli.
In Q2 2026 revenue rose 3% to $2.74 billion and Biogen's growth portfolio, at $1.1 billion, brought in more than its legacy MS drugs at $767 million. Biogen raised its 2026 outlook to mid-single-digit revenue growth. Its main tests now are Leqembi adoption against Eli Lilly's Kisunla, the first Phase 3 felzartamab readout in kidney disease expected in 2027, and whether Apellis's products keep growing.
