Pair of deals boosts Biogen’s early-stage CNS pipeline

Biogen has signed a brace of collaborations to expand its central nervous system (CNS) pipeline, adding new candidates for Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases. The first of the new deals is a $415 million collaboration with protein degradation specialist C4 Therapeutics, focusing on Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases, while Biogen is also paying Skyhawk Therapeutics $74 million upfront to license therapeutic candidates for MS, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and other diseases developed using its RNA platform, plus undisclosed milestones.
The two deals continue Biogen’s tight focus on neurology – first pursued in 2016 when it spun off its haemophilia business into Bioverativ (since acquired by the Shire) – but contribute to an ongoing effort to reduce the company’s reliance on a portfolio of fast-maturing MS therapies headed by Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate) which has started to see sales flatten. Biogen currently has five potential Alzheimer’s treatments and one Parkinson’s treatment in development, and analysts have become concerned that its focus on tough-to-treat diseases makes its pipeline very high risk despite other projects in stroke, MS, lupus, and other diseases.