Biogen’s R&D pruning hits digital health as biotech scraps 23,000-person Apple study

Biogen axed its 23,000-person cognitive health study with Apple phones and watches last week as part of a broader pullback in the biotech’s fledgling digital health unit, per an update to a US federal trials database.

Just two years into its digital health expansion, Biogen is cutting back, per a STAT News report from Wednesday citing Biogen corporate development leader Adam Keeney. The move comes as Biogen’s new leadership consolidates its pipeline, removes 1,000 positions and digests its first acquisition in four years.

The drugmaker formed the digital health unit in 2021 to boost its work in healthcare apps, digital biomarkers, multiple sclerosis assessment tools, virtual reality and digital therapeutics, an area that received heaps of venture capital money in recent years but has struggled to gain traction.

As artificial intelligence and machine learning pick up steam, biotech and pharma have had to contend with how best to use it and figure out digital health’s place in new medicines and management of diseases. Sanofi recently promoted a leader to the chief digital officer post and Pfizer has had one since early 2019.

Adam Keeney

Biogen had grown its digital health unit to more than 100 people, per a job posting. It wasn’t immediately clear how many employees would be impacted or if their roles would be shifted to other areas of the company. A Biogen spokesperson declined to comment on personnel.

“It’s certainly not an abandonment of digital, it’s more of a realignment of resources and priorities,” Keeney, Biogen’s head of corporate development, told STAT, noting the digital health unit “would no longer continue in its current form.”

A Biogen spokesperson told Endpoints News via email that “some functions are evolving their operating models” as part of the cost-cutting measures CEO Chris Viehbacher announced in July. The company will look to external help and partnerships in the future, the spokesperson noted.

“Digital medicine & health technologies will remain an important part of our strategy to de-risk and accelerate our R&D engine and commercial operations,” the spokesperson wrote. Biogen is “assessing” its digital strategy, per the spokesperson, noting the company will keep working on development of digital biomarkers for Parkinson’s and early Alzheimer’s, and digital work in rare diseases.

The most immediate impact is the shuttering of a clinical trial in partnership with Apple, in which iPhone and Apple Watch users would be observed for two years to monitor their cognitive performance. The goal was to potentially detect early signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Volunteers in the study dubbed Intuition could get an Apple Watch and up to $280.

On Sept. 21, the clinical trials database was updated to reflect the study’s premature termination on Sept. 19, rather than the original plan of Dec. 31, 2024. The move was “part of Biogen’s ongoing research and development portfolio management efforts,” per the site.

Biogen’s digital health team also partnered with MedRhythms last year to see if sensors, software and music could improve walking for people with multiple sclerosis. Biogen dished out $3 million upfront and put up to another $117.5 million on the line. It also lined up with Twill, formerly Happify Health, on a digital therapeutic for patients with MS last year.

therapeutics
biomarkers
biotech
pharma
healthcare
digital health
artificial intelligence
machine learning
apps
software
medicine
venture capital