
Last year, the pharmaceutical company Biogen released a drug called Aduhelm. It was the first new Alzheimerâs drug approved by the FDA in almost 20 years, but its rollout was mired in controversy â vast swaths of experts decried its approval, claiming there simply wasnât enough evidence to support its efficacy, while the Journal of American Medicine (JAMA) rejected Biogenâs key Aduhelm paper. Shortly thereafter, Medicare chose to limit coverage of the drug.
All that is to say that given last yearâs Aduhelm spectacle, youâd be forgiven for doubting what appears to be a promising development in Biogenâs continued Alzheimerâs drug development. And thatâs just what it announced with a collaborator, fellow pharmaceutical maker Eisai, on Tuesday. But that being said, initial data suggests that the new drug is actually proving quite successful in late-stage clinical trials â enough so that Biogen might have a redemption arc, after all.
That new drug, lecanemab, is an anti-amyloid medication. An amyloid is a type of protein, and a normal one for brains to produce. An overabundance of amyloids, however, is believed to be caused by a disruption in a healthy brainâs built-in protein disposal system, resulting in a plaque; although our understanding is still fuzzy, brains with Alzheimerâs are shown to have abnormal plaque levels, so the idea is that anti-amyloid lecenameb, administered intravenously, could scrub that plaque away.