On Friday morning, Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) released an update regarding its Biologics License Application (BLA) for aducanumab as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The drugmaker wasn't too forthcoming with details in this update -- and there was certainly a lot left to interpretation -- but at least one Wall Street analyst thinks it was good news for the biotech. As a result of these developments, shares of Biogen have risen sharply on Friday and were up by 6% as of 1:43 p.m. EST, after jumping by as much as 10.6% earlier in the day.
The saga surrounding aducanumab has been going on for a while. As a reminder, Biogen originally discontinued this drug's development back in March 2019, as it didn't look likely to meet its primary endpoint in a pair of late-stage clinical trials. But an analysis of a larger dataset of these studies turned out to show evidence that aducanumab did, in fact, help reduce the cognitive declines associated with AD, at least according to Biogen.
That's why, in October 2019, the company resurrected this project. Biogen submitted a BLA to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July 2020, and the health industry regulator granted the experimental medicine priority review with a PDUFA date of March 7, 2021.
Source Fool.com