Biogen’s 2025 financial outlook not materially impacted by potential tariffs

Biotechnology company Biogen said that its 2025 financial outlook is not currently expected to be materially impacted by potential tariffs, even if the exemption for pharmaceuticals were to be removed by the Trump administration.

“This is based on both a significant proportion of U.S. revenue being derived from products which have manufacturing operations in the United States, and the company's current global inventory positions,” Biogen said in its first-quarter 2025 financial results announced Thursday.

At the same time, the company noted that the “U.S. and international tariff landscape remains uncertain, and this guidance does not include contemplation of any new tariffs.”

CEO Christopher Viehbacher told analysts on the company’s earnings call that Biogen operates a significant manufacturing presence in the U.S., with 75% of its 2024 U.S. product revenues attributable to products which have domestic manufacturing operations.

“Biogen actually exports more than we import,” Viehbacher said, while adding that approximately 55% of the company’s 2024 product revenue came from countries outside of the U.S. “That’s pretty unusual in our business,” he claimed. “In most of this industry, what you see is 60% to 80% of product revenues come from the U.S.”

Viehbacher acknowledged that “the whole tariff situation is changing daily and is difficult to predict.” However, he said that even if tariffs were to be imposed on pharmaceuticals by the Trump administration, Biogen is well-positioned given its “long” supply chains and the fact that inventory levels have been built up for products, ingredients, and materials.    

“In 35 years in this industry, I’ve never had to spend as much time as we as a team have on tariffs in the first quarter,” Viehbacher said, noting that “it’s a new topic for us all” and is very complicated for investors to understand.

Viehbacher told analysts that “a number of you have been using the tax rate as a surrogate for what the tariff exposure might be — and I would submit to you that that’s actually not appropriate in the case of Biogen.”

In a report in March, Jefferies analysts found that Amgen and Biogen have the most “foreign exposure” potentially to Trump’s tariff threats, based on their respective manufacturing footprints outside the U.S. and tax benefits from overseas operations.   

Viehbacher on Thursday noted that Biogen pays “an awful lot of tax” in the U.S. since those market revenues are “almost entirely taxable” at the federal and state tax rates. “We are more of a U.S.-based company and always have been — and actually we’re quite proud of that,” he said.