Biogen therapy first to remove tau deposits from the brain

Early clinical data suggest Biogen and Ionis’ antisense therapy may provide a better test of the tau hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease than the first set of anti-tau mAbs.

At the annual AD/PD meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Wednesday,  Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ:BIIB) reported that BIIB080, an antisense oligonucleotide therapy targeting tau, not only slowed the accumulation of tau in the brain, as measured by PET imaging, but reversed some of the accumulation already present at each brain analyzed, an achievement not seen with the latest-generation anti-amyloid mAbs or with the first of anti-tau antibodies to read out in the clinic. ...