2022 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Online > Online Breaking News Coverage > New England

Awarded to

Fierce Pharma staff; Eric Sagonowsky, Senior Editor; Tracy Staton, Editor in Chief

Entry details

Biogen's Aduhelm approval

Issue or publication date: June 7, 2021
Publication name: Fierce Pharma
Publishing/parent company: Questex
Website home page: https://www.fiercepharma.com

About the publication's mission and readership:

https://fiercepharma.questexinfo.com/loading.do?omedasite=Pharma_full

Description of the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:

Biogen’s drug for Alzheimer’s disease, Aduhelm, had been controversial for months when it won a surprising FDA approval June 7. Fierce Biotech, Fierce Pharma and Fierce Healthcare had been covering the drug from various angles, and the entire team tackled the approval story.

Starting with a news story on the FDA nod itself, turned around in minutes for the daily Fierce Pharma newsletter, the team reached out to sources and dug into their notebooks. By the afternoon deadline three hours later, we had seven stories for a special newsletter. Three of them were on the Fierce Pharma site, looking at the drug approval and its benefits for Biogen—and its consequences for doctors, patients, payers and other Alzheimer’s drug developers.

The special newsletter encapsulated issues we’d follow for months: Would doctors prescribe a drug with incomplete proof? Could payers afford to cover the pricey treatment? Could Biogen really turn this conditional approval into $10 billion in annual revenue? And would the FDA’s unprecedented move to OK an Alzheimer’s drug based on clearance of amyloid plaques—not on actual improvements in symptoms or disease progression—prompt companies to resurrect drugs that had previously failed?

The newsletter quickly brought in thousands of readers from our core audience in the biotech, pharma and healthcare industry. It drove thousands to our preview coverage the previous week. And it planted Fierce Pharma’s flag as a leading source of Aduhelm news, which our audience keenly followed, with more than 700,000 views to date.

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/biogen-fda-aducanumab-decision
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/alzheimer-s-fda-nod-bag-biogen-faces-historic-drug-launch-and-10b-potential-sales-analysts
https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/biogen-s-alzheimer-s-drug-aduhelm-approved-patients-demand-skyrockets-and-physicians-prep

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