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Remove the Amyloid burden and stop more from forming with A2-73?

Biogen CEO Calls Share Slump an Overreaction to Alzheimer's Trial
By Peter Landers
TOKYO-- Biogen Inc.'s chief executive said investors overreacted when they pushed down the company's share price nearly 7% on news that it was adding patients to trials of an Alzheimer's disease drug.

"It's very common that we have to increase the sample size, and we don't take that as a sign that influences whatsoever the outcome of the study, " said Michel Vounatsos, head of the Cambridge, Mass., drugmaker, in an interview on a visit to Japan, where Biogen is trying to expand its presence.

A chunk of Biogen's $62 billion market capitalization is tied to expectations for its Alzheimer's drug aducanumab, currently in final-stage human trials. Two big trials began in 2015 and were intended to enroll a total of 2,700 patients together. On Feb. 14, a Biogen executive told an investor conference that the trials were adding 510 patients, for a new total of 3,210, to ensure that the results had enough statistical power.

The news drove Biogen shares down 6.6% that day because investors feared the change meant the drug wasn't showing good enough results with the patients enrolled so far.

Mr. Vounatsos said the results of the trial to date were blinded so he doesn't know how well the drug is doing, but he said it was planned all along that the trial size could grow based on the variability of interim results.

He said Biogen was still enthusiastic about the drug's prospects and "the reaction you are seeing is an overreaction of the market."

Aducanumab is an injected antibody designed to target beta amyloid, protein pieces that can clump together to form plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's. Previous drugs based on the "amyloid hypothesis" have failed to show significant effects.

Mr. Vounatsos said he believed the hypothesis was valid "until proven otherwise" but cautioned against overly high expectations for aducanumab. "It's not one intervention that will suddenly cure the disease. There will probably be different sets of interventions," he said.

Though it doesn't have specific trial plans yet, Biogen is already thinking about combination therapies, he said.

Commenting on Pfizer Inc.'s decision to pull out of Alzheimer's research, Mr. Vounatsos said the field wasn't well-suited to diversified drugmakers that also sell cancer and heart drugs.

"This is our mission," he said. "And so I'm not surprised that some companies decide to opt out. Because it's complex and high-risk, and you can't do that halfway."