Biogen added more than $4 billion in market value on Monday after a rival Alzheimer’s disease treatment from Eli Lilly showed promise in a small clinical trial.
The preliminary benefit of Lilly’s treatment, which works similarly to Biogen’s controversial aducanumab, “adds momentum and belief” to the idea that targeting a toxic brain plaque called amyloid can slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s, Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. That theory, dubbed the amyloid hypothesis, had reached a scientific nadir in recent years after a string of similar medicines failed to benefit patients in key clinical trials.
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