Biogen Inc. has spent much of the past year shedding assets following the disastrous rollout of its first Alzheimer's disease drug, Aduhelm.
Now, a new Alzheimer's drug could turn things around and allow the Cambridge company to plan for growth again.
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Positive topline data from a new drug called lecanemab, which Japanese drugmaker Eisai Inc. largely developed with Biogen as its partner, has sent Biogen's shares skyrocketing. Over the course of the day on Wednesday, the first day of trading following an after-hours news release about the data, Biogen shares were up nearly 40%, reaching almost $272 each and giving the company a market capitalization of $40.1 billion. That's nearly $12 billion higher than when the company closed on Tuesday.
As SVB Leerink analyst Marc Goodman put it in a flash note, the positive data is "great news, given the low expectations coming into this event."
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That's a change from the last nine months, as Biogen has sought ways to cut spending to counter the fallout from Aduhelm, which was approved last summer. It conducted layoffs, which were partly responsible for a 300-person decline in its Massachusetts headcount. It left some positions open. It has sold and subleased several buildings in Cambridge and the suburbs, as well as in Durham, North Carolina. It even sold its stake in a biosimilars venture it started more than 10 years ago with Samsung Bioepsis, a subsidiary of the Korean biopharmaceutical company Samsung Biologics.
Can Biogen — among global the leaders of the industry until just a couple years ago — be able to position itself as a growth business once more with lecanemab's help? Here are several ways of looking at that question.