Biogen slips amid reports of death linked to new Alzheimer’s drug
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Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) shares dropped in the pre-market trading Friday after Stat News reported that the investigational Alzheimer's therapy lecanemab the company is advancing with its Japanese partner Eisai (OTCPK:ESALY) (OTCPK:ESALF) may have contributed to the death of a patient in June.

An early readout from a Phase 3 trial for the anti-amyloid antibody lifted the Alzheimer's-focused drug developers in September after Biogen (BIIB) and Eisai (OTCPK:ESALY) said that the study named Clarity AD which involved about 1,800 patients reached the primary goal.

However, according to Stat, an investigator of the study reported the death, claiming that the event followed bleeding in the brain and concluded it was related to the experimental therapy.
Eisai (OTCPK:ESALY) disagreed, pointing to other possible factors, including multiple falls, a heart attack, and mini stroke-like events as reasons for the death.
Read: After the FDA approved Aduhelm, another Alzheimer's therapy developed by Biogen (BIIB) and Eisai (OTCPK:ESALY) in 2021, Lane Simonian, an Alzheimer's disease researcher, wrote that patients taking the anti-amyloid drug could develop serious adverse effects such as brain swelling and micro-bleeds.