Biogen Plunges

Rough day for Biogen (BIIB):

Biogen Inc. said an investigational therapy for multiple sclerosis missed its primary and secondary goals in a mid-stage study, but that the data suggested evidence of a clinical effect.

Shares of the Cambridge, Mass., biopharmaceutical company fell 9.1% to $263.50 in recent premarket trading.

Biogen Chief Medical Officer Alfred Sandrock said that owing to the complex nature of the data, the company continues to analyze the results “to inform the design of our next study.”

The treatment—known as opicinumab—aims to repair the nervous systems of people with relapsing multiple sclerosis by employing a certain antibody in the effort to restore myelin sheaths that coat nerve fibers.

Biogen generates the majority of its revenue from three multiple sclerosis drugs that are experiencing slowing growth. The company has focused its research and development efforts on new treatments for multiple sclerosis—with two other multiple sclerosis treatments in its pipeline—and other neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. The company plans to spin off its hemophilia drug business to narrow its focus to neurological disorders.

In the latest trial, opicinumab missed the primary endpoint of improving walking ability, upper extremity function, cognition and other measures of physical disability. The treatment also missed the secondary endpoint for slowing the progression of disability.

In a separate study of patients after a first episode of acute optic neuritis, opicinumab met its primary endpoint related to responses to light stimuli compared with a placebo, but it wasn’t effective on secondary goals of changing the thickness of retinal layers or visual function.

Multiple sclerosis disrupts transmission of signals between the brain and spinal cord and other parts of the body and is marked by such symptoms as fatigue, muscle weakness, cognitive difficulties and, in some advanced cases, paralysis below the waist.

Posted by on June 7th, 2016 at 12:19 pm


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