Biogen isn’t wasting any time integrating its multibillion-dollar purchase of Apellis, revealing plans to part ways with some of the biotech’s staffers and halt work on most of its research programs about one month after closing the deal.
Biogen has decided to “pause or terminate investment in the majority of legacy Apellis research programs,” a spokesperson told Fierce on Friday.
As part of the move, “a small number of roles within the research organization have been eliminated,” the spokesperson added. Biogen continues to assess Apellis’ clinical and preclinical portfolio to “further evaluate strategic fit,” the company representative said.
Endpoints News first reported the developments Thursday.
In cutting these research efforts, Biogen is making explicit its desire to focus on Apellis’ Empaveli and Syfovre, marketed drugs which share the active ingredient pegcetacoplan and which served as the centerpiece of the March deal.
Syfovre, approved in geographic atrophy (GA), and Empaveli, which boasts a trio of rare disease indications, collectively generated $689 million last year.
Both brands are early into their launch phases, so Biogen sees plenty of room for further growth as it continues to face competitive pressures in its stalwart multiple sclerosis business.
Besides the approved Apellis meds, the biotech had been conducting research on clinical-stage asset APL-3007 before the merger, according to its pipeline. APL-3007 is a small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) therapeutic being tested in combination with Syfovre in patients with GA. A study for that pairing is still enrolling, according to the ClinicalTrials.gov database.
Conversely, studies of pegcetacoplan in patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and in those who are at high risk of delayed graft function after a kidney transplant are listed as “suspended.”
Additionally, Apellis’ preclinical portfolio included RNA therapies, gene-editing therapies under a collaboration with Beam Therapeutics and an oral complement inhibitor, according to its pipeline.
Apellis employed around 740 people at the time of the deal, and Biogen said it expected a “significant portion” would continue on at the combined drugmaker.