[caldeerster]

Biogen Idec had some encouraging word for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease this morning. The Cambridge, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: BIIB) said its experimental drug for the disease reached its goal of demonstrating effectiveness in a pair of mid-stage clinical trials, although it didn’t go into detail about how good the data really was.

The drug, BIIB-014, reached its goal in a study of 40 patients who took the treatment alone for early stage Parkinson’s, and was also effective in about 70 patients with more severe forms of the disease who took it in combination with standard L-dopa, Biogen said. The news came from Cecil Pickett, Biogen’s president of research and development, in a presentation today to investors at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

Biogen isn’t saying yet what its next steps will be in developing the drug, said spokeswoman Naomi Aoki. But the company clearly has high hopes for this program, as we described last week.

(more at link)

http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/0...-stage-trials/