After a rocky approval journey, facing unfavorable national coverage policies in the United States, and more recently calling it quits on its observational trial for the drug, Biogen has now declared its remaining inventories of Aduhelm worthless.
In an SEC filing shared last week, Biogen stated that all its inventories of the drug as of the end of June 30 were considered “de minimis,” or worthless from an accounting perspective. The filing also says that during the last quarter of 2021, the company wrote off approximately $120 million of Aduhelm inventory and was left with roughly $233 million worth.
Because there were no other approved Alzheimer’s treatments on the market and a massive patient population, many considered its approval one of the biggest FDA decisions of the decade and believed it would quickly reach blockbuster status. Roadblock after roadblock, the drug failed to live up to its hype.
Now the company is writing off the remaining inventory, looking to gracefully survive the loss by downsizing and restructuring, as well as abiding by remaining regulatory steps such as conducting a phase 4 post-marketing study.