Biogen ''committed'' to ALS despite dexpramipexole Phase III failure

Biogen Idec has disclosed no other amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drugs in its clinical pipeline, but when the company said that it would discontinue development of dexpramipexole after the ALS therapy missed the primary endpoint in a Phase III clinical trial, executive vice-president of research and development Douglas Williams said Biogen would continue its work with outside scientists "to understand the causes of ALS and find potential treatments".

There were high hopes for dexpramipexole given the difficulty of finding effective ALS therapies and promising Phase II signals for Biogen's drug, but many investors understood that dexpramipexole was...