Biogen has decided to abandon its development of a treatment for Parkinson’s disease after the drug flopped a phase 2 trial.
According to the company, the anti-alpha synuclein monoclonal antibody, cinpanemab, missed its primary and secondary endpoints in a trial comparing it to a placebo. Biogen picked up the treatment from Neurimmune in 2016 and had hopes that it could compete with a synuclein treatment developed by Roche and Prothena.
Biogen announced that it is dropping the development of cinpanemab in an annual results presentation, saying that the company would “recognize an impairment charge of approximately $75.4 million during the fourth quarter of 2020.”
With the disappointing trial results, more pressure is on Biogen to win approval for its controversial Alzheimer’s treatment, aducanumab. The FDA was expected to render a verdict on the approval of the drug in March, but recently pushed back the decision date to June 7. If approved, Biogen said it would be ready to launch aducanumab right away. If not approved, Biogen warned that its 2021 forecast would suffer given that a significant portion of its manufacturing capacity has already been allocated to the drug.
Read the Reuters report.
