Biogen
NEWS
Biogen touted strong Q3 sales of its Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi a day after announcing a deal worth up to $1.45 billion with Neomorph to discover and develop molecular glue degraders.
William Blair analyst Myles Minter in a Monday note to investors said that Vertex’s povetacicept “has maintained its potential to be a best-in-class asset” in the IgA nephropathy space and could become a “multibillion-dollar pipeline-in-a-drug product” for autoimmune disorders, while “outstanding questions” remain for Biogen’s felzartamab before moving into pivotal studies.
Since its inception in 1992, the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway has helped shepherd nearly 300 new drugs to the market. However, recent years have seen a number of high-profile market withdrawals and failed confirmatory trials.
Stifel analyst Paul Matteis called Tuesday’s readout a “positive surprise” that could reinvigorate some investor enthusiasm for Biogen as the company “has essentially become an out-of-favor value stock,” driven by the slow launch of its Alzheimer’s disease therapy Leqembi.
While approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the Alzheimer’s drug failed to win the backing of the U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which said that its benefits were “too small to justify the cost.”
The size of the global immunology market is projected to nearly double by 2032 to a quarter of a trillion dollars. Here are this year’s standout deals in the space.
The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use found that Leqembi’s benefits do not outweigh the risks of severe side effects associated with the treatment.
Biogen and Sage Therapeutics’ investigational neuroactive steroid did not significantly improve upper limb tremors in patients with essential tremor, the companies announced Wednesday.
Analysts predict a booming year for mergers and acquisitions, powered by obesity drug sales and pressure from upcoming patent expirations.
JOBS
IN THE PRESS