Biogen is giving up its ownership of Aduhelm, the Alzheimer’s disease treatment whose 2021 approval led to scrutiny and outrage, turning the page on a tempestuous chapter in the company’s long history.
Neurimmune, the Swiss company that invented Aduhelm, will regain full rights to the intravenous medicine, Biogen said Wednesday. Biogen will also terminate an ongoing clinical trial meant to prove the treatment’s benefits for patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.
“When searching for new medicines, one breakthrough can be the foundation that triggers future medicines to be developed,” Biogen CEO Christopher Viehbacher said in a statement. “Aduhelm was that groundbreaking discovery that paved the way for a new class of drugs and reinvigorated investments in the field.”