The current COVID-19 pandemic has presented a substantial public health and economic challenge around the world. As governments, businesses and other organizations take unprecedented measures to help mitigate the spread of the outbreak, we want to reinforce our deep commitment to our employees, our patients and the communities where we live and work. Consistent with this commitment, the Biogen Foundation has committed $10 million to support global response efforts and communities around the world impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We also take the vital role we play in ensuring an uninterrupted supply of our medicines to patients very seriously.
The Biogen team is taking the following actions to address these challenging times:
Supporting our Workforce and Communities
Our office-based colleagues have been directed to work from home since Friday, March 6, and we have mandated virtual meetings in affected countries at least through the end of March, while ensuring essential staffing levels in our operations remain in place. This includes maintaining key personnel in our laboratories and manufacturing facilities to meet the needs of the patients we serve. To minimize the risk of illness for our employees who need to work at our facilities, we have implemented clear protocols, including increased deep cleaning for all of our sites worldwide. In addition, we have launched an illness prevention and awareness campaign, and we are regularly updating employees and reminding them of all of the resources available to them.
Ensuring Continuous Supply of Medicine to Patients
At this time, we continue to operate our manufacturing facilities and supply our therapies, including biosimilars in Europe, for people around the world who are living with serious diseases. While we currently do not anticipate any interruptions, we cannot exclude the possibility that the rapidly changing efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 may have an impact in the future on our ability to manufacture or supply our therapies in certain areas of the world.
Continuing our Important Work on Clinical Trials
We are continuing the clinical trials we have underway in sites across the globe. We are monitoring this dynamic situation closely and expect that COVID-19 precautions may impact the timeline of some of our trials, particularly those that are actively enrolling and monitoring patients.
Staying in Close Contact with our Regulators
At this time, we are continuing our regular interactions with our regulatory authorities and will continue to monitor this situation.
Overall Business Outlook and Uncertainty
We remain committed to continuing to operate our business to serve the needs of our patients and advance our mission of being pioneers in neuroscience. Given the fluidity of the current environment, however, we cannot rule out future impact to our business as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including impact on sales, manufacturing and clinical trials. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
Safe Harbor
This business update includes forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and beliefs that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially. Please consult the risk factors section of our SEC filings.
