The approval of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug has reignited investor interest in a contested hypothesis about what causes the disease, despite years of failures in the field and staunch dismissal of the theory by many scientists and doctors.
Biogen’s $56,000 per year drug was the first Alzheimer’s treatment in nearly two decades to be granted the green light by the US regulator last month. Called aducanumab, it is the first treatment purporting to slow the pace of cognitive decline, rather than helping patients manage symptoms.
The drug is designed around the amyloid hypothesis, proponents of which believe that clumps of protein built up in the brain cause Alzheimer’s. Biogen says the drug clears amyloid plaques from the brain and in turn alters the course of the disease.