Message from Management
Welcome! Thank you for visiting the BioMarin Pharmaceutical website.
A well known French poet once said, “L’homme est ainsi bâti: Quand un sujet l’enflamme L’impossibilité disparaît à son âme.” Loosely translated, this means that for people who are inspired with passion and determination, nothing is unattainable. For them, anything is possible. That is how I would describe the people at BioMarin and the force that drives the company’s success.
There is a sense of exhilaration in our offices, hallways and laboratories that is fueled by a sense of urgency to bring important drugs to market as quickly as possible. With collaboration, hard work and determination, BioMarin’s team of physicians, researchers and business professionals is committed to harnessing its expertise in biopharmaceutical science to improve the lives of people with rare disease. Please join me in congratulating the entire team on the successes they achieved in 2008.
The year 2008 was a very important milestone in BioMarin’s history. We achieved our first profitable full year, with total revenues up 144 percent from 2007 to nearly $300 million, and increased sales across all of our three products. We continue to build an exciting pipeline, with a clinical portfolio featuring PEG-PAL for PKU and GALNS for MPS IVA, and a preclinical lineup that provides hope to many other patients with a variety of other rare diseases.
The year also brought with it the U.S. launch of Kuvan and we have been encouraged by the progress made thus far in a market with unique complexities. We continue to look for new ways to enhance our commercial efforts in this area and we remain very optimistic about the long-term potential of the product.
Other successes throughout the year included several regulatory achievements such as the approval of Naglazyme in Japan and South Korea, and the recent approval of Kuvan secured in the European Union by our partner Merck Serono.
In 2008, BioMarin achieved important milestones that will fuel future growth opportunities in the orphan drug industry. Today, as a fully integrated mid-cap biopharmaceutical company with three products on the market, strong revenues and cash reserves of nearly $560 million, we are confident and well positioned for the long-term. In 2009, we will continue to advance our pipeline and actively pursue valuable business development opportunities to bring increased value to patients, shareholders and employees.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Jean-Jacques Bienaimé
Chief Executive Officer
