Alfred Sandrock, the research chief at Biogen, will be leaving the company at the end of the year, Reuters reports.
According to Biogen, Sandrock has been on the company's executive committee since 2015, served as chief medical officer between 2012 and 2020, and has been the head of research and development since October 2019. It adds that he oversaw Biogen's development of drugs like Spinraza (nusinersen) for spinal muscular atrophy and Aduhelm (aducanumab) for Alzheimer's disease.
The US Food and Drug Administration's approval of aducanumab in June drew criticism and led to the resignation of members from an FDA advisory committee that had concluded there was not enough evidence the drug was effective. An additional report from Stat News said there may have been off-the-books meetings between Biogen and FDA, which then contributed to acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock to call for a review of the approval process.
According to Reuters, Priya Singhal will lead the Biogen R&D unit until a permanent successor is found.