Diving shorts:

• Biogen is buying Alcyone Therapeutics after working with the company for a better delivery system of neurological drugs built around anti -oligonucleotides for more than two years.
• According to the terms announced Thursday, Biogen will spend $ 85 million. USD in advance to purchase a private company and promise additional payments to Alcyone investors if certain development and regulation goals are achieved. Biogen will acquire full rights to ThecaFlex DX, an implantable subcutaneous port and a catheter device that it develops with Alcyone since 2023.
• Companies are undergoing two studies trying to provide the system with a Biogen Spinraza medicine at the spine muscle atrophy, Biogen said. Lowell, Alcyone, Massachusetts, since 2019. ThecaFlex DX develops and produces a product on the spot.

Diving insight:

Thanks to partnerships with Ioni Pharmaceuticals, Biogen has a long history of anti -oligonucleotide, which can change protein production in the body. Both companies have developed a BlockBuster drug Spinraza, which steadily increases the level of the main motor neuronal protein in the central nervous system.

Spinraza has been successful, earning nearly $ 1.6 billion in revenue last year, but it must be administered directly to the central nervous system, requiring repeating lumbar puncture. The ThecaFlex DX idea is to offer patients a lighter experience with an implanted device that allows us to use a conventional medicine such as Spinraza.

Successful research could open up much more opportunities to administer neurological drugs such as Spinraza. The company said the current tests would „inform the Wider Biogen Portfolio Roads.”

In addition to Spinraza, Biogen and Ioni, they successfully brought the Qalody to the Als market and work with other Alzheimer’s disease and spinal muscle atrophy. They also stumbled along the way, last year’s experimental drug development after the results of disappointment.

A new way of administration could also help Biogen as it faces competition in the spinal muscle atrophy market from companies, including Roche and Novartis. Roche’s Evrysdi is an oral medicine that needs to be taken every day, and Novartis genetic Zolgensma is for a one -time treatment for children under two years, costing about $ 2 million. Another medicine from Scholar Rock could also be confirmed soon.