The U.S. government started a review process for national Medicare coverage of Biogen Inc.’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm that was approved during June 2021 by the country’s health regulator.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on July 9 called for an independent federal probe into its representatives’ interactions with Biogen Inc. that led to approval of the company’s Alzheimer’s disease drug during June 2021.

Biogen Inc. on July 8 said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration narrowed use of the company’s Alzheimer’s drug after the regulatory agency drew sharp criticism for its broad approval of the drug in June 2021 without proof of clear benefit against the disease.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform announced plans to investigate the approval and pricing of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease medicine Aduhelm (aducanumab), which has a list price of $56,000 per year.

Eli Lilly will apply for U.S. health regulator’s accelerated approval during 2021 for the company’s experimental Alzheimer’s drug, weeks after Biogen Inc.’s controversial drug for the disease was approved.

Biogen

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a sweeping series of memos revealing a clear struggle within the regulatory agency ahead of its controversial decision to approve Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm.

Florida-based Cantex Pharmaceuticals forged a licensing deal with vTv Therapeutics for a drug that had initially been developed as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Cantex intends to repurpose the drug for multiple indications in cancer.

Data from clinical trials of three experimental Alzheimer’s disease drugs expected to start emerging during 2022 could help shed light on whether U.S. regulators were justified in their controversial approval of a Biogen Inc. treatment without clear evidence that Aduhelm works.

Biogen

Biogen’s quest to develop additional medicines for Alzheimer’s disease beyond the company’s newly approved aducanumab hit a clinical snag as the anti-tau antibody gosuranemab failed to meet endpoints in a Phase II study and was discontinued.

A third member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee resigned in protest over the regulatory agency’s approval of Biogen’s Aduhelm (aducanumab) for Alzheimer’s disease.