Staff Writer

Biogen Idec Inc. is offering $1 billion in senior unsecured notes and plans to use the proceeds and cash on hand to repay debt from a $1.5 billion bridge loan, a company spokeswoman confirmed.

The five- and 10-year notes are being offered in two parts: $450 million in 6 percent notes due 2013 and $550 million in 6.875 percent notes due 2018, spokeswoman Naomi Aoki said.

The sale of the notes is expected to close March 4, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company said. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are the book-running managers for the offering.

Proceeds from the bridge loan were used to repurchase shares of Biogen Idec's common stock in a $3 billion offer settled in July 2007, the company said. The company is taking the bridge loan and converting it into the five- and 10-year notes, Aoki said.

Biogen Idec has two blockbuster drugs: Rituxan (rituximab) for certain B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and for moderate to severe active rheumatoid arthritis, and Avonex (interferon beta 1-a) for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. In 2005, Rituxan generated U.S. net sales of $1.8 billion, of which Biogen Idec recorded $709 million as co-promotion profits, according to the company. That same year, sales of Avonex generated worldwide revenues of $1.54 billion.

Its other U.S.-approved product, Tysabri (natalizumab), was reintroduced to the U.S. market in June 2006 as a monotherapy for relapsing forms of MS and was approved by the European Commission that year as a single disease modifying therapy in highly active relapsing remitting MS.

In addition, the company has more than 20 drug candidates in clinical development, studying new target indications for the approved products and other potential treatments for diseases such as Lupus (anti-CD40L), rheumatoid arthritis (ocrelizumab), heart failure with hyponatremia (Lixivaptan) and non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma (galiximab), according to Biogen Idec's website.

The company's stock (NASDAQ:BIIB) was down $2.22, or 3.6 percent, Friday, to close at $58.36.

In other financing news,

• Genoptix Inc., of Carlsbad, Calif., said that 2.08 million shares of outstanding common stock are being offered by certain existing stockholders to the public at the price of $25.50 per share. The selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 313,043 additional shares of common stock. The company, which provides diagnostic services to community-based hematologists and oncologists, said it will not receive any proceeds from the sale. The offer is expected to close March 5, 2008.