Cambridge-based Biogen reported third-quarter revenue of $2.8 billion on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, up 11% from a year earlier and well above Wall Street forecasts. The Biogen Q3 2026 earnings showed newer drugs and products from its Apellis Pharmaceuticals acquisition making up for a continued slide in its older multiple sclerosis franchise, and the company nudged up the low end of its full-year profit outlook.
Adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings came to $2.62 per share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $1.99, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Revenue beat the consensus of $2.63 billion. On a standard accounting (GAAP) basis, Biogen posted a net loss of $20.6 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with a profit of $466.5 million, or $3.17 a share, in the third quarter of 2025.
Biogen Q3 2026 earnings by the numbers
Total revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 was $2.804 billion, compared with $2.535 billion a year earlier. Product revenue rose 13% to $2.09 billion. The company’s “Growth Portfolio” of newer medicines brought in $1.26 billion, up 49%, and accounted for 63% of core pharmaceutical revenue, Biogen said.
The swing to a GAAP loss came mainly from deal-related charges. Biogen booked $284 million of acquired in-process research and development, upfront and milestone expense in the quarter, mostly tied to its acquisition of RayThera Inc., compared with $2 million a year earlier. Because that charge is not tax-deductible, the company’s GAAP effective tax rate was negative 128.5%. Biogen also recorded $66.5 million in restructuring charges.
Operating costs climbed as Apellis was folded in. Research and development spending rose 32% to $574 million, and selling, general and administrative expense rose 26% to $752 million. Operating cash flow was about $641 million and free cash flow about $600 million. Biogen ended September with about $1.3 billion in cash and $7.7 billion in debt, for net debt of roughly $6.4 billion.
What the data shows
By The Boston Report’s calculation from Biogen’s release, total revenue rose by $269 million from a year earlier. The $243 million from Apellis’ two drugs, which Biogen did not own in the third quarter of 2025, equals about 90% of that increase, so most of the quarter’s growth came from the acquisition rather than from the legacy portfolio.
The multiple sclerosis franchise is still the largest single block of revenue at about 33% of the total, but its share is shrinking. Tecfidera alone lost $86 million, roughly half its sales, in a year. Spinraza is now half the size of the entire MS business, and the three fastest growers named in the release (Spinraza, Skyclarys and Zurzuvae) together brought in $723 million, or about 26% of revenue (TBR calculations).
Apellis drugs, Spinraza and Leqembi drive growth
The quarter was the first full period that included Apellis, the Waltham-based eye and kidney drug company Biogen bought for about $5.6 billion in a deal that closed in May 2026. Apellis’ geographic atrophy injection Syfovre had $191.3 million in sales and its complement inhibitor Empaveli $51.5 million, together $243 million, above the $216.8 million consensus cited by BioSpace. Biogen said Syfovre’s commercial injections hit their highest quarterly level since launch.
Spinraza, the spinal muscular atrophy drug, grew 23% to $461 million, which the company credited to faster-than-expected conversion to a high-dose regimen. Friedreich’s ataxia drug Skyclarys rose 34% to $178 million, and postpartum depression drug Zurzuvae rose 53% to $84 million. In total, rare disease revenue rose 27% to $676 million.
Global in-market sales of Leqembi, the Alzheimer’s disease drug Biogen sells with Japan’s Eisai, rose 67% to $202 million, including $107 million in the U.S. Reuters reported that analysts had expected about $130.6 million. Biogen books a 50% share of the drug’s results; its Alzheimer’s collaboration revenue was $68 million.
The older multiple sclerosis business kept shrinking. MS product revenue fell 13% to $919 million, with Tecfidera down to $82 million from $168 million and Vumerity down 11% to $192 million on what the company called U.S. formulary changes. Tysabri was roughly flat at $437 million. Biosimilars revenue fell 16% to $166 million.
Guidance and what comes next
Biogen now expects full-year 2026 adjusted earnings of $12.20 to $13.00 a share, raising the bottom of the range from $12.00. The company said the change reflects business strength and less dilution than expected from Apellis. It still expects full-year revenue to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage over 2025, and combined adjusted R&D and SG&A spending of about $4.95 billion.
The next test is the pipeline. Biogen said it expects top-line results in the first half of December 2026 from two Phase 3 studies, TOPAZ-1 and TOPAZ-2, testing litifilimab in lupus. More Phase 3 readouts are due in the first half of 2027 for litifilimab in cutaneous lupus and felzartamab in antibody-mediated kidney transplant rejection, and in the third quarter of 2027 for zorevunersen in Dravet syndrome.
Why it matters for Kendall Square
Biogen, founded in 1978 and based at 225 Binney Street, is one of the largest employers in Cambridge’s biotech cluster. Its results arrive in a difficult stretch for the local industry, which has seen a string of layoffs and rising lab vacancies this fall, as covered in our report on Kendall Square biotech layoffs and empty lab space. Massachusetts’ unemployment rate stood at 4.3% in September 2026, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED).
Biogen is one of several Boston-area companies reporting this month; see our Boston company earnings guide for Q3 2026 and the latest Boston business and economy news.
Reaction
“Our third quarter results demonstrate that Biogen has returned to growth,” CEO Christopher Viehbacher said in the earnings release, adding that with “multiple Phase 3 readouts expected over the next 12 months, we are positioned to further strengthen our long-term growth profile.” Truist Securities called it “a solid quarter that reinforces confidence in execution and early Apellis integration,” while adding that it expects clinical results to drive the stock over the next year or so, BioSpace reported.
Sources
- Biogen: Form 8-K and press release, “Biogen Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results” (Oct. 28, 2026)
- Reuters via Yahoo: Biogen beats third-quarter results on strength in rare disease drugs (Oct. 28, 2026)
- BioSpace: Biogen notches 3rd straight quarter of growth thanks to newer products, Apellis (Oct. 28, 2026)
- FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Unemployment Rate in Massachusetts (MAUR)
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