Alexion announces pipeline restructuring

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN) restructured its pipeline to focus on its core complement inhibitor franchise and its approved rare disease products, dropping early stage rare disease partnerships with Moderna Therapeutics Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.), Blueprint Medicines Corp. (NASDAQ:BPMC) and Arbutus Biopharma Corp. (NASDAQ:ABUS).

The biotech plans to discontinue at least six candidates, including ALXN1630, an mRNA therapy in preclinical development to treat Crigler-Najjar Syndrome (CN-1), three metabolic compounds and two additional preclinical compounds. It did not provide details...