Biogen shares soar on landmark Alzheimer trial results

10,206 次觀看・1 年前

STORY: Shares of Biogen soared more than 40% on Wednesday - after a surprise successful trial of its experimental Alzheimer's drug.

Trial results released late Tuesday for lecanemab, which Biogen developed with Japan's Eisai, showed the experimental drug slowed the advancement of Alzheimer's by 27% compared with a placebo, in a large trial of patients in the early stages of the disease.

The drug targets a toxic protein plaque that has long been considered crucial to arresting the progression of the fatal brain disease, but previous attempts have led to failure after failure.

But analysts hailed Tuesday's trial results as an unequivocal win and could mark a rare victory in the search for a treatment for Alzheimer's after years of clinical failures.

Dr. Stephen Salloway is professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University.

"Well, it's a big moment in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. This is the first pivotal trial of an Alzheimer's drug to come to completion to show substantial amyloid lowering, which is the target, and to demonstrate clear clinical benefits. So it's a ray of hope for people facing early stages of Alzheimer's."

Shares of Biogen were on track to add more than $10 billion to its market cap and erase all of its losses this year.

Shares of Eisai also jumped following the news, climbing 17% to the daily limit in Tokyo.

Shares of rival companies Eli Lilly and Roche also gained, as the latest results raised hope for success in trials testing their Alzheimer's drugs.

Shares of smaller Alzheimer's drug developers jumped as well, with Prothena and Acumen Pharmaceuticals each climbing by more than 60%.