Biogen y su socio Eisai rose and led shares of other drugmakers higher amid optimism about the results of their drug trials. illness de Alzheimer.
The two partners said their experimental drug, lecanemabsignificantly slowed the disease, making it the first drug to slow the progression of the most common dementia in a large definitive study.
Biogen was up 43 percent in trading before US stocks opened, adding more than de $12 billion in market capitalization. Eisai closed 17 percent higher in Tokyo, hitting the highest level in nine months, after going unlisted earlier in the day as bids outbid more than 19 times.
Eli Lilly & Co. and Roche Holding AG, which are developing similar drugs, also won.
The findings mark an important milestone for researchers who have tried in vain for decades to halt the inexorable decline linked to the disease. The difference it will make to patients and their families is less clear. Although it appears to unequivocally slow the disease, the drug does not restore mental capacity or stop Complete your loss.
“Clearly this is not a magic bullet,” said John Hardy, a professor of neuroscience at University College London. “But it looks like a definite ‘end of the beginning.'”
The results reinforce the so-called amyloid hypothesis: a long-standing but controversial theory that the accumulation of amyloid, a toxic protein that clogs the brain, is one of the main causes of the disease. Thus, it raises hope for other anti-amyloid drugs in development, especially drugs in early stage trials. Roche and Lilly ending.
Roche said he was encouraged by the results. Data from two key studies on his own experimental drug, called gantenerumab, will be released at an industry conference in November.
challenges ahead
Biogen and Eisai said that lecanemab slowed the rate of cognitive decline in people with early disease by 27 percent for 18 months compared to a placebo. However, the benefit came with side effects, including brain swelling and bleeding, although serious cases were rare.
The drug was originally authorized by BioArctic AB of Sweden, whose shares more than doubled on the news.
The Alzheimer’s Association welcomed the results, as did pharmaceutical and biotech analysts.
“We finally have what we believe to be a clean victory in Alzheimer’s disease,” wrote Evan David Seigerman, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, in a note to customers. “The top-line data is clear to us: lecanemab reduces the rate of cognitive impairment”.
The test met all of the goals that were set, including other measures of mental function and the ability to perform daily activities, the companies said.
The positive study is not the end of the challenges for Eisai and Biogen, who are collaborating on the drug that had some initial controversy and will split the profits.
An earlier drug they developed together, called Aduhelm, was approved in the United States in June 2021 despite conflicting trial results. While the amyloid-lowering antibody modestly slowed Alzheimer’s decline in one large trial, another showed no effect.
They were both stopped early, but Medicare refused to pay a treatment that initially cost 56 thousand a year outside of clinical trials, and the drug ended up being a commercial failure.