The big Alzheimer’s blowup, broken down

ADOBE

Biogen’s announcement Thursday that it was stopping two late-stage clinical trials for its Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab was impossible to miss. The news was disappointing to researchers, patients, and investors. By the time the markets closed, Biogen’s stock price had fallen 28 percent — or, as one clever person put it on Twitter, the company had lost 13 unicorns of value.

But the failure has raised a question that will take more than a day to answer: What happens to Biogen now?

The company may be facing a tough choice: acquire something or be acquired. As Adam Feuerstein and Matt Herper postulated, an acquisition would probably mean layoffs at Cambridge’s fourth-largest employer, but acquiring another company to fill the gaping hole that’s been blown in Biogen’s pipeline will cost quite a bit more today than it would have a few years ago.

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