Biogen Idec says Icahn candidate wins board seat

CAMBRIDGE — Biogen Idec says a candidate nominated by activist shareholder Carl Icahn won a seat on the drug maker's board of directors as part of a contentious proxy fight, but the votes are still too close to call on a second seat.

Icahn claims his portfolio manager Dr. Alexander J. Denner and Dr. Richard C. Mulligan, a Harvard Medical School professor, have won seats on the board. Biogen says Denner won a place on the board, but it will rely on the tabulation of votes by the an independent elections inspector before announcing the results for the final board member.

Shareholders of Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen Idec Inc. also re-elected Robert W. Pangia and William D. Young to the board.