Opinion: To create value, pharma companies should prioritize innovation, not shareholders
Biogen announced its quarterly earnings on April 22 and revealed it had repurchased $600 million of its shares in the first quarter — a majority (78%) of its operating cash flow for the quarter. In contrast, Biogen invested a fraction (12%) of its operating cash flow on capital expenditures.
And this was actually a light quarter of share repurchases for Biogen. In 2020, the company repurchased a whopping $6.7 billion of its shares, or 1.67 times its net income of $4 billion for 2020.
