A rift may have opened in the Alzheimer’s disease partnership between Biogen (BIIB) and its Japanese pharma partner Eisai following the high-profile and costly failure of their jointly developed drug aducanumab.
Eisai said Friday that it intends to push ahead with the development of a second Alzheimer’s drug, called BAN2401, also part of the Biogen partnership. A Phase 3 clinical trial of BAN2401 targeting the enrollment of 1,500 patients with early Alzheimer’s disease has been initiated, Eisai said.
Is Biogen on board with Eisai’s plan for BAN2401? When asked by STAT to confirm its participation with Eisai in this newly announced Phase 3 clinical trial, a Biogen spokesman sent a carefully worded reply:
About the Author Reprints
Anthony J. Martorell, Abigail L. Paulson, Ho-Jun Suk, Fatema Abdurrob, Gabrielle T. Drummond, Webster Guan, Jennie Z. Young, David Nam-Woo Kim, Oleg Kritskiy, Scarlett J. Barker, Vamsi Mangena, Stephanie M. Prince, Emery N. Brown, Kwanghun Chung, Edward S. Boyden, Annabelle C. Singer, Li-Huei Tsai. Multi-sensory Gamma Stimulation Ameliorates Alzheimer’s-Associated Pathology and Improves Cognition. Cell, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.02.014
Good