A Biogen facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
biogen plans to advance an experimental Alzheimer's disease drug into final-stage testing despite disappointing mid-stage trial data, the company said Thursday.
Biogen said its experimental drug targeting tau, a protein associated with the memory-robbing disease, failed to show better responses at higher doses.
However, Biogen plans to move the drug diranersen into phase 3 testing due to signals suggesting the treatment lowers tau levels and slows cognitive decline, particularly at the lowest dose.
Dr. Priya Singhal, head of development at Biogen, said the results are compelling.
“We are very excited to have been able to demonstrate an unprecedented combination of tau reduction in pathology and cognitive benefit and have come very close to isolating a dose,” he said. “Those are the three requirements you need to move to Phase 3.”
The results mark the latest example of Biogen's uneven path to developing Alzheimer's drugs. Biogen has been researching this brain disease for years. It has brought two drugs to market designed to curb cognitive decline, although it withdrew its first drug, Aduhelm, after it failed to overcome controversy surrounding its approval.
Both Aduhelm and Biogen's other Alzheimer's drug, Leqembi, remove a protein associated with Alzheimer's called amyloid from the brain. Diranersen is an antisense oligonucleotide that limits tau production.
Rival Eli Lilly It is also studying drugs that seek to reduce tau levels.
