Founded in 1978, Biogen Idec is the world’s oldest independent biotechnology company. Patients worldwide benefit from our leading multiple sclerosis (MS) therapies. We provide our therapies in nearly 100 countries around the world and have been in the UK and Ireland since 1996.
COMMITMENT TO MS
For more than 30 years, Biogen Idec has been committed to improving the lives of people living with MS. We are dedicated to serving all those affected by the disease through cutting-edge science and delivering innovative therapies, all enhanced by our deep understanding of patients’ needs.
We know that MS impacts every person differently and each individual has distinct needs driven by the severity of their condition, the impact of disease symptoms, their preferred route of therapy administration, and their lifestyle.
Biogen Idec is the only company in the UK with a franchise of marketed products for the treatment of MS. Our organisation not only provides information about the disease, but also the benefits of the appropriate use of our products.
We are dedicated to partnering with neurologists who specialise in the management of MS, nurse specialists who provide care to those affected by the disease and organisations that represent the MS community.
Terry O’Regan, vice president and managing director of Biogen Idec UK and Ireland comments: “Underpinning our vision at Biogen Idec is our belief in the importance of trust, integrity and team work. These values shape all our interactions with our stakeholders.
“Our commitment to the MS community is bolstered by our specialised patient support programmes, dedication to enhancing patient access to medicines through working closely with the NHS and HSE, which focus on increasing the understanding of MS through medical education and support.
“We have developed more MS therapies than any other company. Our industry-leading expertise in MS research and commitment to cutting-edge science has resulted in a robust pipeline focused on novel ways to advance the treatment of the disease, including potential repair of the neurological damage which results from MS relapses.”
Our treatment portfolio allows us to support people living with MS throughout their journey. Biogen Idec was the first company to introduce a once-weekly, self-injectable MS treatment, making treatment more user friendly. Our current MS portfolio includes a leading treatment for remitting and relapsing MS, a treatment that has played a role in revolutionising disability progression. And we introduced the first MS treatment to improve walking in MS patients.
CORE VALUES
Mr O’Regan explains: “At Biogen Idec we care deeply, ensuring the needs of patients are at the heart of everything we do. We keep patients, their families and healthcare professionals at the centre of our goals. We are constantly seeking ways to improve the patient experience and to change their lives for the better.”
SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITIES
At Biogen Idec UK and Ireland we support many good causes within the community. Through individual events, regular office-wide collections, sponsorships and partnerships, we strive to make a real difference to MS groups, organisations and the community in which we serve.
We recently announced, as part of our ongoing support of MS patients globally, that Biogen Idec has joined the Sailing Sclerosis Foundation’s Oceans of Hope project as official partner. This multi-year, global campaign is designed to use sailing as a means to educate and empower the MS community, changing perceptions of what it means to live with the disease and demonstrating the benefits of an active lifestyle.
A boat, with a crew composed of people living with MS, will circumnavigate the world, starting in Copenhagen, Denmark, and embarking on an 18-month voyage with stops in Germany, France, UK, Portugal, United States, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Spain and Italy before heading back to Copenhagen as its final its final port of call. The boat will make a stop in Portsmouth from July 3-6.
You can find out more by visiting the Sailing Sclerosis website, www.sailingsclerosis.com You can also join in on the Oceans of Hope (OOH) conversation through social media channels:
OOH Twitter (@sailsclerosis)
OOH Facebook (www.Facebookcom/OceansofHope)
OOH Instagram (OceansofHope)
Access news stories, photos and videos on the website, www.sailingsclerosis.com
CARE DEEPLY VOLUNTEER DAY
The Biogen Idec Care Deeply Volunteer Day is part of the company’s charitable focus on patients, science education and supporting local community needs. This is driven by Biogen Idec’s employees who develop unique programmes that focus on having a measurable impact in their local communities.
Biogen Idec’s Care deeply Volunteer Day was introduced across the company’s largest locations, including the UK office, in 2011 and rolled out globally to Biogen Idec offices in 2012.
Since it was launched, the project has continued to grow:
2012: 1,600 employees, 80 projects in 22 countries
2013: 1,900 employees, 122 projects in 28 countries
2014: Our fourth annual Care Deeply Volunteer Day is on Friday, September 19.
For this day of service, Biogen Idec employees are given a paid day off to volunteer at a service project in their community. In 2013, employees served more than an estimated 9,500 volunteer hours in some 28 countries in the communities where the company operates.
The programme allows employees to contribute to their communities, while sharing their talents and energy in ways that aligns with our mission of caring deeply and changing lives.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE UK
Globally, our corporate social responsibility initiatives are led by the Biogen Idec Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives and contribute to the vitality of the communities in which we operate, with a special emphasis on innovative ways to promote science, literacy and encourage people to consider science careers.
In the UK, we have adopted the focus of the foundation and our efforts are centred around:
Science
Education
Local community.
We will continue community work with a local Berkshire refuge, Maidenhead food bank and through our annual corporate Care Deeply Day.
Biogen Idec is also concerned with its responsibility to the environment. We work hard to reduce our energy usage to ensure a positive impact and, over the last three years, have been successful in cutting energy consumption by more than 38 per cent.
PROVIDING VALUABLE SUPPORT THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS
Biogen Idec is committed to innovation in everything we do, including partnerships. Because we believe that each partnership or alliance is unique, we are extremely flexible about the structure. We have engaged in many different kinds of collaborations, licences and acquisitions.
We are pursuing cutting-edge research. We put approximately 20 per cent of our revenues back into research and development, and we have established strong relationships with prestigious academic institutions, such as Edinburgh and Harvard universities. This helps us to stay at the forefront of science and inspire the next generation.
Biogen Idec enthusiastically engages with partners at every stage of a product’s development. A potential partner may be based at a university, with an exciting idea that is nonetheless too conceptual for other sources of funding. Others are in late-stage development and looking for assistance with large clinical trials, manufacturing or commercialisation.
That’s why we have developed a continuum of partnership models specially designed to support companies at different stages.
We work collaboratively with our partner to help ensure the project is a strategic fit and success for both companies.
For example, in neurology we are performing research to understand and map the pathways involved in progressive forms of MS, neuropathic pain, Alzheimer’s disease and motor neuron disease.
In immunology, where we have focused on diseases such as lupus and lupus nephritis, we intend to do more in the related areas of fibrotic diseases. And in haematology, we are advancing research in sickle-cell anaemia and beta-thalassemia.
In 2013 we entered into a partnership to discover and develop small molecule drugs to reduce alpha-synuclein accumulation, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease pathology.
COMMITMENT TO INNOVATION, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Biogen Idec is approaching neuroscience research in innovative new ways. Advances in technology and new approaches to collaboration are accelerating our ability to find cures for neurological diseases, which have posed some of the greatest challenges in medicine.
We apply innovative approaches, leading-edge science and world-class technical capabilities to our pursuit of medicines that improve the lives of patients. Maintaining our scientific leadership requires that we engage the best minds in our efforts as we strive to make breakthroughs in discovery and translational sciences.
Our scientists are at the forefront of their fields and, in partnership with leading academic institutions and companies, work to identify and validate novel targets that will catalyse the discovery of important new approaches to treating disease.
Our R&D efforts are primarily focused on three areas in which we are recognised leaders:
Neurodegenerative diseases
Autoimmune disorders
Haematologic conditions
Clinical operations.
Biogen Idec’s Global Clinical Operations team, based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, consists of teams designing, planning and executing clinical trials in neurology and immunology. These studies are conducted on both small molecules and monoclonal antibodies to serve disease areas with high unmet need.
The company’s rich drug development pipeline and demanding development goals provides our team in the UK with a challenging and stimulating role.
OUR HISTORY AND WHERE WE ARE TODAY
Biogen Idec employs approximately 7,000 people worldwide. Our US corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is also home to our research operations and small-scale manufacturing facility, with an international headquarters in Switzerland and world-class manufacturing facilities in North Carolina, United States, and Hillerod, Denmark.
For more information on Biogen Idec please go to our website www.biogenidec.co.uk Twitter @biogenidec
