A raucous annual meeting at Biogen Idec Inc. ended Wednesday with activist investor Carl Icahn claiming he won two seats on the board, and the biotechnology company refusing to concede.
Mr. Icahn issued a news release saying Biogen was "hijacking the election."
A Biogen spokeswoman said the company's actions involved "absolutely no procedural foul."
Mr. Icahn has been agitating broadly against the managements of biotech concerns, and his sometimes-fitful success has made him a major player in the future of the industry. At issue is the independence of big biotechs, which make specialized drugs out of living cells.
At Biogen, Mr. Icahn has been waging a proxy battle for two years. If indeed Mr. Icahn's nominees have secured a perch on Biogen's board, it means they become privy to some of the Cambridge, Mass., company's internal discussions. Mr. Icahn, who owns about 5.6% of the stock, has been goading Biogen to explore a split-up or sale to a large pharmaceutical company.
Alexander Denner, a fund manager Mr. Icahn had nominated, told reporters that based on a preliminary account from Mr. Icahn's proxy solicitor "we believe we have two seats" -- one for him and one for another nominee, Richard Mulligan of Harvard University.
The solicitor, Edward McCarthy of D.F. King & Co., said an Icahn two-seat victory was "pretty clear."
But as of Wednesday evening, Biogen said it was still tabulating votes and that a preliminary count could take a week. Asked whether Biogen disputed D.F. King's count, the drug maker's spokeswoman declined to comment.
Wednesday's shareholder meeting was marked with unexpected acrimony. Biogen's chairman, Bruce Ross, recessed the meeting for more than three hours over shouted objections from Mr. Icahn's representatives.
Biogen's executives then retreated to a small patio at the headquarters of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, where the meeting was held, and phoned major shareholders to solicit support.
Mr. Icahn's nominees returned to a Boston-area hotel and did the same.
In an interview, Mr. Icahn called Biogen's delay "despicable." He added: "What's wrong with Biogen is, they just run it as a country club. ...They can't have the class to say we won one or two seats."
After the meeting, Mr. Icahn's nominees took a conciliatory tone. "Seriously, we look forward to working with you," Mr. Denner told Paul Clancy, Biogen's chief financial officer. Biogen said it would be premature to respond to the overture.
Mr. Icahn has tried to shake up Biogen's board since early 2008, after he prodded the company into putting itself up for auction. But no pharma giants bid on Biogen, and its shares have been battered by the re-emergence of a rare, deadly side effect of its multiple-sclerosis drug Tysabri.
"Our objective is to bring this company to be the next Genentech" in terms of market capitalization and industry respect, Mr. Denner said during the meeting.
"It's got a great pipeline," Mr. Icahn said of Biogen, but "there's a lot of money wasted."
The company has nine drugs in late-stage development.
In February, Mr. Icahn nominated four people to the company's 13-member board.
Even if the final vote shows Mr. Icahn's slate was shut out, the apparent closeness of the vote indicates he is making progress in convincing investors that change is needed at the company.
Unlike traditional pharmaceuticals, biotech drugs are difficult to make and don't face immediate competition when their patents expire. That potential longevity makes them attractive to investors.
Mr. Icahn says such companies will eventually end up as part of pharmaceutical giants and has prodded several biotechs to sell themselves.
Last week, Mr. Icahn and another fund ousted the chairman and lead director of San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. after another proxy fight.
In 2007, Mr. Icahn prodded MedImmune Inc. into selling itself to AstraZeneca PLC for $15.6 billion. In 2006, he took control of the board of ImClone Systems Inc. and last year sold it to Eli Lilly & Co. for $6.5 billion.
In last year's proxy fight, Biogen emerged the victor, winning the support of 56.5% of its shares to Mr. Icahn's 19%. An Icahn victory this year would suggest shareholders are frustrated with Biogen's share price and delay in launching new drugs.
Mr. Icahn's campaign also got a boost from the influential proxy-advisory service RiskMetrics Group Inc., which this year backed two of his nominees.
Over the last year, Biogen's shares have fallen 13%, while the Dow Jones Biotechnology Index fell 3%. On Wednesday, the stock traded up $1.11 to $53.43 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Mr. Icahn has proposed undoing the 2003 merger of Biogen and IDEC Pharmaceuticals that created Biogen Idec.
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