Based: United States
R&D Budget: $1.2B (€894M)
Change from 08: +19.7%
Income spent on R&D: 29.3%

This has been a tough year for Biogen Idec ($BIIB). Once tapped as a likely blockbuster, Biogen Idec and Roche opted to kill their ambitious late-stage development program for ocrelizumab as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. One of its biggest earners, Avonex, gained new competition from the oral MS drug Gilenya from Novartis. And more competition is coming. It tried, and failed, to take over Facet. And after weathering one storm after the next, CEO James Mullen headed out the door after a bruising fight with Carl Icahn and was replaced by George Scangos, a research expert who had helmed Exelixis.

Scangos wasted little time before setting in motion a major restructuring aimed at making the company nimble and efficient once again, sounding very much like a Big Pharma company out to get its groove back. Part of the new focus in R&D will be to prioritize Biogen Idec's programs and get the company moving on the partnership front. In a recent interview with the Boston Globe, Scangos made it clear that the R&D division can't work in isolation.

"We're a very tiny circle in the middle of this big universe," he said. "So it's more likely interesting advances will come from outside the company than within the company.''