Sales of Biogen's newly approved drug for Alzheimer's disease, Aduhelm, have been low, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to Biogen, Aduhelm revenue for July through September totaled $300,000. The Journal adds that the total sales of the drug for the year was $2 million, though analysts had expected it to reach $12 million during the quarter.
The US Food and Drug Administration's approval of aducanumab (Biogen's Aduhelm) in June was controversial. The approval under the agency's accelerated approval pathway came despite an advisory panel concluding that there was not enough data showing that the drug worked. The approval led advisory panel members to resign, and reports of "off-the-books" meetings between Biogen and FDA officials has also led acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock to call for an investigation of the approval process.
At the same time, a number of insurance companies have said they would not cover the drug and some medical centers said they would not administer it, with some saying that a clinical benefit has not been established.
"The potential uptake of Aduhelm in the US is delayed, but we continue to believe in its long-term potential," Michel Vounatsos, the Biogen CEO, says in a statement.