Biogen halts study of Alzheimer’s drug, a blow to hopes for new treatment

Biogen halts study of Alzheimer’s drug, a blow to hopes for new treatment

Alzheimer's disease beat back another effort to tame it this week. 

Yesterday, Biogen and its Japanese pharma partner Eisai announced their decision to halt two Phase 3 clinical trials on a drug called aducanumab, which aimed to slow cognitive decline by targeting toxic proteins called amyloids.

The failure of the drug marked a loss for proponents of the beta-amyloid hypothesis — once the most well-accepted theory as to how Alzheimer’s disease destroys the brain. It also marked a loss for Biogen, which bet heavily on the drug in its growth projections — and lost nearly $16 billion in market value when this week’s news broke.

You can read the full analysis here, and check out our extensive coverage of the fallout:

• Alzheimer’s drug failure leaves Biogen in a precarious place
• After the blowup of the biggest hope for Alzheimer’s, what’s next in the pipeline?
• Sage’s CEO reflects on what Biogen’s big Alzheimer’s failure means