Biogen is to end development and commercialisation of its Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, which was approved against outside experts’ advice in mid-2021 and caused congressional inquiries and broader market pushback on pricing and efficacy.
While the company didn’t take the official step of pulling the drug from the market, this essentially discontinues the drug, reports EndPoint News.
Biogen said in a statement that it would hand rights for Aduhelm back to original owner Neurimmune.
By walking away from Aduhelm, Biogen said it would free up resources for Leqembi, its follow-up anti-amyloid treatment developed with Eisai, and speed up work on other modalities, including an anti-sense oligonucleotide targeting tau (BIIB080) and an oral small molecule inhibitor of tau aggregation (BIIB113).
“Biogen is reprioritising resources to build a leading franchise to address the multiple pathologies of the disease and patient needs,” said CEO Chris Viehbacher.
The company will also stop work on a phase 4 confirmatory trial, which regulators had requested to try to confirm the drug’s benefit as a condition for selling it in the US.
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