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After being on the chin Thursday and Friday for his dubious strategy of sticking to the theory of beta-amyloid on Alzheimer's disease – at the head of the news that his partner Eisai had chosen the # One of the worst times possible to launch a new phase III trial of their own Alzheimer's BAN2401 – Biogen closed the week with a statement that came to an end well before the staff endorsed it.
Here is what they sent me on Saturday morning:
"We can confirm that our collaborative partner, Eisai, has issued a press release announcing the start of a Phase III with BAN2401. We are working with Eisai to evaluate potential next steps for Biogen. We do not comment further. Please address your questions to Eisai. "
Alzheimer's other partner, BACE, is BACE's elenbecestat program, which follows a number of setbacks in the field that indicate that reducing beta-amyloid flow does not effectively fight the disease.
Shares in Biogen's $ BIIB closed the week down more than $ 100 a share to $ 216.71, a disastrous 32% fall on a Phase III failure of the aducanumab that leads to speculation without end on the fact that the company can be resolved or not be bought itself.
"It's absolute madness," Baird's Brian Skorney summed up, looking at the latest developments.
The question now is whether Eisai will be part of Biogen's future. This decision will largely be made by Michel Vounatsos, CEO of Biogen, who put his career on the line at the aducanumab, a failure in the fall of 2017. The CEO has restructured his alliance with Eisai and bought back an increased share of royalties in aducanumab. this represented additional investments of $ 500 million.
This big investment has come back to haunt him now.
Biogen upset the world of biopharmacy by announcing that she was abandoning the latest studies on aducanumab after concluding that the tests were going straight to the lurch – the latest in a long series of years. decisive failures on the ground that left a list of observers ready to conclude that any new investment in the beta-amyloid field would be reckless. They have already been severely criticized for their work on BAN2401, in partnership with Eisai, who started the new Phase III study on Friday.
You may remember that both companies had been affected by controversy after Eisai executives had touted the efficacy data and then revealed that the researchers had removed high-risk patients from the clinic. Test, which might have skewed the results.
BAN2401 remains one of the few drugs in the clinic based on the idea that reducing toxic levels of beta-amyloid can affect the course of the disease. This has not happened yet, however, with billions of dollars spent, while Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Merck and Roche have all conceded major failures at the end of the phase over the past year.
The last defender on this hill will win no heart and mind on Wall Street, and Biogen needs all the support possible.
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