Biogen Announces $5 Bln Stock Buyback

(RTTNews) - Biogen on Monday announced a stock buyback of $5 billion, just days after its stock took a beating after the it ended two Alzheimer's disease trials.

The company said the share buyback is in addition to the about $1.7 billion remaining under the stock repurchase program authorized by its board in August 2018.

Biogen shares had lost 32% after the company's announcement on Thursday to end the trials. Biogen lost more than $18 billion of its value last week after the company and partner Eisai ended two late-stage trials of their experimental Alzheimer's disease treatment, aducanumab.

Biogen and Eisai said they decided to stop the trials after results of a futility analysis conducted by an independent data monitoring committee indicated the trials were unlikely to meet their primary endpoint upon completion. The companies added that the decision to stop the studies was not based on safety concerns.