Neurodegenerative disease
With so many unknowns, Biogen is carefully eyeing its next-gen Alzheimer’s treatment diranersen as a high-risk, high-reward project with the potential for a major payout around 2030.
New mid-stage data from Biogen’s Ionis-partnered therapy diranersen served to both validate the tau hypothesis in Alzheimer’s disease and raise questions that could soon be elucidated by anti-tau candidates from Denali Therapeutics, Eisai and Eli Lilly.
Biogen’s new data, presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, supports a tau-focused approach to the intractable neurodegenerative disease; psychedelics are back in the news with more positive data from Compass Pathways and final guidance from the FDA; and the ATTR-CM space got a major shakeup with the late-stage failure of AstraZeneca and Ionis’ antisense therapeutic.
Eli Lilly’s anti-amyloid Alzheimer’s drug is designed to be stopped after patients drop below a certain amyloid level in the brain. However, at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Wednesday, Lilly revealed it is studying the potential of maintenance therapy for patients who need it.
Roche’s decision to discontinue the Ionis-partnered trials came soon after the biotech sustained a late-stage failure in ATTR-CM.
GSK and Alector first partnered in 2021 to advance two antibodies for neurodegenerative diseases. Both assets have since failed to show significant clinical benefit.
The mid-stage disappointment in Alzheimer’s disease delivers another blow to Neuphoria Therapeutics, which in November last year was forced to launch a strategic business review after a Phase 3 trial in social anxiety disorder failed.
A recent FDA reversal sparked new hope for patients with Huntington’s disease. Flying under the radar, Skyhawk Therapeutics revealed 12-month functional data from a midstage trial of its own candidate showing improvements on a key disease measurement scale.
Eli Lilly plans to use BioArctic’s technology to shuttle an undisclosed drug candidate into the brain. The pharma hasn’t specified which neurodegenerative disease it will target.
Insilico Medicine and SK Biopharmaceuticals will use generative AI to develop novel therapies for unspecified neuroimmune disorders.
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