Check Out These 20 Boston Area Biotechs That Spent Less on R&D This Year

October 13, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

BOSTON – Over the past year, spending on research and development has become “less of a priority” among Boston-area biotech companies in comparison to the same period the previous year.

Don Seiffert, life sciences editor of the Boston Business Journal, examined R&D expenses of 20 area companies as they related to total overall spending. Seiffert said that although R&D budgets grew by an average of 11.3 percent, they did not outpace the growth in total spending, which saw a 20.7 percent growth. What that means, Seiffert said, is that R&D expenses as a percentage of total expenditures “dropped by 3 percentage points, going from 48.8 percent from July 2014 to June 2015 to 45.7 percent from July 2015 to June 2016.”

Seiffert’s list, which looks at the 20 biggest biotechs in the area is as follows:

1. Amag Pharmaceuticals

Spent $56.2 million on R&D from July 2015 to June 2016. The previous year the company spent $28 million. However, the percentage of total expenditures did not change from 19 percent, Seiffert said.

2. Shire

The Irish company, but largely run out of Massachusetts, spent $1.1 billion in the time frame, compared to $1.4 billion the previous year. Based on the most recent numbers, Shire spent 25 percent on R&D, down from 40 percent the previous year.

3. Biogen

Biogen saw R&D expenses drop from 43 percent to 42 percent as part of its total expenditures. The company spent $2 billion over the past year on R&D, while the previous year it spent $1.9 billion.

4. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Spending on R&D as a total of expenditures declined from 47 percent in the previous year to 45 percent. From July to June, the company spent $117 million and in the previous year, spent $108 million.

5. Alkermes

Spending on R&D increased to $385 million from $311 million. However, as a part of total expenses, spending dropped from 51 percent to 48 percent.

6. Ariad Pharmaceuticals

Ariad Pharmaceuticals did not see a decline in its R&D expenses. The company increased spending on R&D from $138 million to $180 million. As a percentage of total spending, R&D increased to 54 percent from 47 percent, Seiffert said.

7. Tesaro

R&D as a percentage of total spending dropped from 73 percent to 60 percent, even though the company increased its R&D budget from $132 million to $186 million.

8. Radius Health

R&D as a percentage of total spending dropped from 73 percent to 65 percent.

9. Sarepta Therapeutics

Sarepta saw an increase in its expenses from 66 percent to 67 percent of total spending as the company increased its R&D budget by $40 million from $121 million over the 12 month period from 2014 to 2015.

10. Merrimack Pharmaceuticals

Seiffert did not provide a comparison to 20014-2015 expenses, but Merrimack spent 68 percent, $156 million, of its total spending on R&D for the most recent time period he examined.

11. Bluebird bio

Bluebird’s R&D dropped from 76 percent to 70 percent in total spending. The R&D budget though saw a $45 million boost to $150 million.

12. Momenta Pharmaceuticals

R&D as a percentage of total spending dropped to 70 percent from 72 percent. The company did increase its budget from $110 million to $131 million.

13. Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vertex increased its R&D to 72 percent of total spending over 68 percent the previous year. The company spent $1.1 billion on R&D, compared to $832 million.

14. Acceleron Pharma

Like Merrimack, the company did not have previous data, but it spent 72 percent of total expense on R&D, about $62 million.

15. Celldex

R&D as a percentage of total spending dropped from 80 percent to 73 percent at Celldex. The company’s R&D budget also saw a decline from $105 million to $102 million, Seiffert said.

16. Sage Therapeutics

Sage remained steady at 74 percent of total spending on R&D, despite a large bump in budget. The company spent $88 million on R&D this year, compared to $47 million for the previous period Seiffert examined.

17. Agios Pharmaceuticals

R&D as a percentage of total spending dropped from 83 percent to 79 percent, despite a budget increase to $168 million from $129 million.

18. Blueprint Medicines

New to the list, Blueprint spent 80 percent of its total spending on R&D, about $67 million.

19. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

RNAi company Alnylam remained steady at 82 percent spending on R&D as part of its total spending. The company did see a boost in R&D dollars of more than $100 million.

20. Ziopharm Oncology

R&D takes up 92 percent of Ziopharm’s total spending, up from 85 percent the previous year. The company’s R&D budget jumped from $99 million to $165 million.