Biogen said on Tuesday that it would substitute its main executive and effectively give up on marketing and advertising a higher-profile Alzheimer’s drug that has been a industrial failure since its controversial approval virtually a year back.
Michel Vounatsos, who has led the drug maker for more than 5 yrs and presided in excess of the approval and start of the drug, regarded as Aduhelm, will continue being in his position till a successor is appointed, Biogen explained.
Biogen mentioned it prepared to “substantially eliminate” its paying out on the drug soon after Medicare formally made the decision very last thirty day period to sharply limit its protection of Aduhelm.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized Aduhelm in June. It was the to start with new treatment for Alzheimer’s in practically two many years. It had been greatly envisioned to grow to be a blockbuster drug within a number of yrs, making billions of pounds yearly for Biogen. But the acceptance was overshadowed by issue about the drug’s unproven benefits and serious safety risks, as effectively as about the method by which the F.D.A. had greenlighted it.
Health professionals, insurers, and sufferers and their family members have not embraced Aduhelm. On Tuesday, Biogen described that the drug experienced introduced in just $2.8 million in revenue in the initially three months of this yr, soon after creating only $3 million in 2021. Biogen originally priced the drug at $56,000 per 12 months for the normal individual in advance of halving the value in reaction to weak early product sales.
Aduhelm experienced been expected to strain federal government wellness budgets. But Medicare made the decision to fork out for the drug only for persons who get it as individuals in a clinical trial. Previous month, Biogen stated it would withdraw its software to market place the drug in the European Union soon after drug reviewers indicated that it was unlikely to gain acceptance.
