Biogen (NASDAQ: BIIB) and Ionis have been awarded the prestigious 2017 Prix Galien USA Award for Best Biotechnology Product for SPINRAZA® (nusinersen). The Prix Galien USA Award recognizes extraordinary achievement in scientific innovation that improves the state of human health. The award was presented at a ceremony in New York City on October 26, 2017.
“We are humbled to be recognized by the Galien Foundation with Ionis for SPINRAZA, the first and only therapy to treat the devastating condition of spinal muscular atrophy,” said Michel Vounatsos, chief executive officer at Biogen. “SPINRAZA’s profound clinical impact is certainly the most rewarding outcome for all of us involved, and I want to thank our Biogen colleagues around the world for their passion and commitment to making a difference in this area of medical need.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved SPINRAZA on December 23, 2016 under priority review for the treatment of SMA in pediatric and adult patients. SMA is a rare disease and leading genetic cause of death in infants marked by progressive, debilitating muscle weakness taking away a person’s ability to walk, eat and ultimately breathe. SPINRAZA is an approved therapy for the treatment of SMA.
For more information about SPINRAZA and prescribing information in the United States, please visit www.SPINRAZA.com
SPINRAZA Program Status
SPINRAZA is the first approved medicine for the treatment of SMA and is currently approved in the United States, the European Union, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland and Canada. Biogen has submitted regulatory filings in additional countries and plans to initiate additional filings in other countries.
Biogen licensed the global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize SPINRAZA from Ionis Pharmaceuticals, a leader in antisense therapeutics. Biogen and Ionis conducted an innovative clinical development program that moved SPINRAZA from its first dose in humans in 2011 to its first regulatory approval in five years.
About The Galien Foundation
The Galien Foundation fosters, recognizes and rewards excellence in scientific innovation to improve the state of human health. The Foundation oversees and directs activities in the USA for the Prix Galien, an international award that recognizes outstanding achievements in improving the human condition through the development of innovative therapies. The Prix Galien was created in France in 1970 in honor of Galen, the father of medical science and modern pharmacology.
About Biogen
At Biogen, our mission is clear: we are pioneers in neuroscience. Biogen discovers, develops and delivers worldwide innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. Founded in 1978 as one of the world’s first global biotechnology companies by Charles Weissman and Nobel Prize winners Walter Gilbert and Phillip Sharp, today Biogen has the leading portfolio of medicines to treat multiple sclerosis; has introduced the first and only approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy; and is focused on advancing neuroscience research programs in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, neuroimmunology, movement disorders, neuromuscular disorders, pain, ophthalmology, neuropsychiatry, and acute neurology. Biogen also manufactures and commercializes biosimilars of advanced biologics.
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