By Joseph Walker and Brianna Abbott
A strategy meeting for senior managers at Boston-area biotech
Biogen Inc. late last month has emerged as a hotbed for novel
coronavirus infections, resulting in more than two dozen around the
country so far, according to public-health and company
officials.
The spread of coronavirus infections from the meeting highlights
the potential dangers in going ahead with the gatherings and
conferences that are a staple of conducting business but which also
threaten to amplify epidemics.
"There's a lot of handshaking, there's a lot of being in close
quarters, and that puts you at risk," said Manish Trivedi, the
director of the division of infectious diseases at AtlantiCare in
New Jersey. "You eat something. You rub your eyes. You touch your
face."
Senior Biogen managers who attended the strategy meeting at the
Boston Marriott Long Wharf hotel have since traveled to gatherings
of investors and doctors, as well as returned to their homes in
communities that are also now confronting infection risks.
Among those testing positive for the coronavirus because of the
meeting is an unnamed Biogen executive now in isolation, a company
spokesman said.
Massachusetts has felt the biggest impact from the Biogen
meeting's role in the transmission of the virus. The state's health
department said Monday that 32 patients presumed or confirmed to be
infected have links to the meeting. To limit further spread,
schools in the area briefly closed.
Two Indiana residents linked to the Boston meeting have been
presumptively diagnosed with the infection, according to Indiana's
health department. Five people who live in Wake County, N.C., which
includes Raleigh, are presumed to be infected after attending the
meeting, the Wake County Public Health Division said.
Washington, D.C., said a 77-year-old man who attended the Biogen
meeting tested positive for the novel infection.
Palm Beach County, Fla., officials linked another presumed case
to the company, saying a Biogen employee from Pennsylvania who
traveled to a multiple-sclerosis conference held in West Palm Beach
later tested positive for the virus.
The strategy meeting is an annual planning event at Biogen, a
multinational drugmaker known for its multiple-sclerosis treatments
that is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., and counts 7,500
employees world-wide and about $14 billion in global sales.
About 175 Biogen senior managers from around the U.S. and
international locations convened at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf
on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27, a Biogen spokesman said. Then early last
week, some attendees began reporting flulike symptoms, he said.
The company soon afterward contacted public-health authorities,
the Biogen spokesman said. Those who attended the company meeting
were asked to stay home and monitor symptoms for 14 days, a
Massachusetts health department spokeswoman said.
A Marriott spokeswoman said it was informed of the coronavirus
infections. "We are working closely with the appropriate
public-health authorities and are following their guidance," she
said.
The Biogen meeting's role in transmitting the virus has led
health authorities, hospitals and schools to scramble to prevent
further spread.
As of Monday evening, Massachusetts's health department counted
a total of 41 presumed or confirmed coronavirus cases in the state.
Among the area hospitals that mobilized to help detect additional
cases was Massachusetts General in Boston.
At an ad hoc clinic constructed in the Massachusetts General's
ambulance bay, it has been examining, since last Friday, anyone who
might have been exposed as a result of the Biogen meeting, said
Eileen Searle, the hospital's biothreats clinical operations
program manager.
Last Friday, two public schools in Wellesley, Mass., sent
students home early after being informed that a resident with
children at the schools had been presumptively diagnosed with the
virus after coming into close contact with a person who became ill
after the Biogen meeting.
The schools reopened Monday, March 9, after officials determined
the schools had been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, according
to the Town of Wellesley Health Department.
Officials in Arlington, Mass., a Boston suburb, closed an
elementary school for one day on Monday, March 9, after a parent
who had attended the Biogen meeting was diagnosed with the virus
and a student started showing symptoms, the town health department
said.
The student has since tested positive for the novel coronavirus
infection, local health authorities said. Close contacts of the
infected student have been asked to self-quarantine for 14 days and
not go to school, according to the town health department.
Meantime, public-health authorities face the prospect that the
virus has spread further as some Biogen managers who attended the
company's strategy meeting then went on to other large gatherings
for their work, though there haven't been any reported infections
so far.
Four company executives, including Chief Executive Michel
Vounatsos, attended a Boston-based health-care investor conference
held by Cowen Inc. on March 2, the Biogen spokesman said.
The other Biogen executives who attended were the company's
chief financial officer, Jeff Capello; Al Sandrock, executive vice
president for research and development; and head of investor
relations, Joe Mara.
One of the four Biogen executives at the Cowen conference
subsequently tested positive for the virus, the spokesman said.
The infected executive is recovering well in isolation, and all
four are performing their normal duties while working remotely, the
spokesman said. The company told office-based employees to work
from home starting today, though some lab staff are still working
on site, he said.
A Cowen spokesman said that it notified everyone attending its
conference and is following federal government guidelines, and that
there haven't been any cases among Cowen employees or reports of
infections from other attendees so far.
The Biogen employee who traveled to Florida was at a company
booth on Feb. 28 at the annual meeting of the Americas Committee
for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, which was held at
the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
There are currently no confirmed cases in the county, local
officials said.
Upon learning of the infected Biogen employee, the
multiple-sclerosis group told all conference attendees so they
could take precautions, Jeffrey Cohen, the committee's president,
said. The group isn't aware of any additional cases, he said.
Amy Dockser Marcus contributed to this article.
Write to Joseph Walker at joseph.walker@wsj.com and Brianna
Abbott at brianna.abbott@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 10, 2020 10:43 ET (14:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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