Biogen’s pipeline gets that much smaller

About six months removed from the biggest failed drug trial in recent memory, Biogen could use a win. Yesterday’s news on BG00011, an investigational treatment for lung disease, did not deliver.

Biogen stopped a study of the drug in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis over “safety concerns,” according to an update to ClinicalTrials.gov. RBC analyst Brian Abrahams, who first noted the change, pointed out that while BG00011 didn’t loom large in the minds of investors, its setback underlines just how risky Biogen’s pipeline is.

Just last week, Biogen pulled the plug on an oral Alzheimer’s disease treatment that, like the failed aducanumab, relies on the idea that amyloid plaques drive the disease. And there’s mounting skepticism over Biogen’s other approach to Alzheimer’s, a drug targeting the protein tau, after a similar treatment from AbbVie proved futile in July.