• Illinois: Walgreens Boots Alliance is laying off another round of workers as it continues to find ways to cut costs. Last May, the company laid off 504 corporate employees, followed by another 267 in November. It also cut 400 roles when it closed an e-commerce distribution center. In the latest round of layoffs, the company cut 145 workers, largely from its corporate workforce. According to Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman, employees who have been laid off will receive severance and outplacement services. He also noted that the company still has "significant cost savings and growth goals to deliver." (Davis, Crain's Chicago Business/Modern Healthcare, 1/30)
• Massachusetts: Biogen recently announced that it would end the development and commercialization of Aduhelm, a controversial Alzheimer's drug. In 2021, Aduhelm won conditional approval from FDA despite internal disagreements over its efficacy. Medicare officials also denied routine coverage of the drug, significantly reducing access. Although Biogen last year said it was seeking potential partners or external financing to continue developing the drug, its efforts were ultimately fruitless. Going forward, Biogen plans to redirect a large portion of resources from the Aduhelm program toward Leqembi, another Alzheimer's drug the company developed with Eisai. Leqembi received full FDA approval last year, and Eisai said the drug could generate $7 billion in annual sales worldwide by 2030. Aside from Leqembi, Biogen also said that it plans to accelerate the development of other potential Alzheimer's treatments, such as BIIB080, a drug that targets tau, and BIIB113, an oral small molecule inhibitor of tau aggregation. (Calfas and Kellaher, Wall Street Journal, 1/31; GlobeNewswire, 1/31)
• New Jersey: Novo Nordisk has gradually begun to increase supply of its weight-loss drug Wegovy after restricting supply last May in the face of surging demand. So far, the company has plans to invest more than $6 billion to boost its manufacturing capacity. However, Novo Nordisk noted that it still expects to face periodic supply constraints and other related drug shortage notifications across several of its products and geographic areas. "Our focus in 2024 will be on reaching more patients, progressing and expanding our pipeline as well as the continued significant expansion of our production capacity," said Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen. (Chopping and Loftus, Wall Street Journal, 1/31)

There's a lot of buzz around new Alzheimer’s drugs hitting the market, but will any of these be the breakthrough cure memory care disorders need? We took a deep dive into the dementia drug pipeline to see.