Biogen Idec Pulls Guidance

Updated from 11:40 a.m. EST

Biogen Idec (BIIB ) needs to regroup and recrunch the numbers.

The biotech company has withdrawn financial guidance for 2005 since uncovering a third case of a rare, often fatal disease linked to a patient who had used its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri. Analysts expected EPS of $1.60 on revenue of $2.4 billion. In February, the company forecast EPS, excluding one-time items, of $1.60 to the low $1.70s.

Shares in Biogen Idec and Elan(ELN) were first pounded in late February when the companies pulled Tysabri from the market after receiving reports of one death linked to a patient who had taken the drug during clinical trials. A second case of the rare disease was confirmed later. Both patients took Tysabri for more than 24 months in conjunction with Avonex, an MS drug made by Biogen Idec.

Shares were slammed again on Thursday after a third PML case was reported in a man who took part in a trial for the use of Tysabri in treating Crohn's disease, the inflammatory bowel disease linked to immune system abnormalities. PML, or progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, is an often fatal central nervous system disease. In this third case, the patient had not received a combination treatment with Avonex, suggesting Tysabri was the culprit.

Before the Crohn's disease trial, though, the third patient's prior medication history included more than six years of sustained immunosuppressant use, which overlapped the Crohn's disease trial, the company said Friday during a presentation at Lehman Brothers' global health care conference, at which it provided new information on the third case as well as its research plans.

The man was initially diagnosed with brain cancer in July 2003 and died that December. Though the patient had symptoms consistent with a brain tumor, a review of the patient's MRI showed that a brain lesion caused by PML was mistaken for a tumor.