Biogen is celebrating... because its trial to slow down Alzheimer's has been a success.
👉Background: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It destroys memory and affects over 55 million people worldwide.
👉 What happened: In good Alzheimer's news, Biogen, a US biotech company has announced a successful trial to slow down brain deterioration by 27% compared with a placebo. High fives all round!
👉 What else: But let's remember, this comes after many attempts to cure Alzheimers, including many billions of dollars and sadly many failures. But in this positive news story, Biogen's share price jumped over 40%... or $10 billion USD.
💡The outcomes of a biotech company are a bit like a roulette table: you either win big or lose big.
💡Biotech companies spend billions and billions of dollars each year on research and development. In fact, Merck spent over €2.3 billion on R&D in 2019 (or 24% of its revenue).
💡But 90% of drug candidates actually fail clinical trial testing and don't get regulatory approval. So when it goes well, it can go really well, but many drug candidates never even make it to market.
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