Biogen, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Partners HealthCare
Launch Consortium to Build and Share a COVID-19 Biobank
Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq: BIIB), Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and
Partners HealthCare today announced a consortium that will build
and share a COVID-19 biobank. The biobank will help scientists
study a large collection of de-identified biological and medical
data to advance knowledge and search for potential vaccines and
treatments. Biogen will help employees who wish to volunteer
connect with the project. The volunteers are among the first people
in Massachusetts to be diagnosed with and recover from COVID-19, as
well as close contacts of those individuals, including people who
were not tested or who may not have had symptoms.
According to researchers, this unique, clustered group of
patients with a common exposure will offer a valuable lens into why
some people show signs of disease and others are asymptomatic. It
may also shed light on why among those with symptoms, some have
more severe symptoms than others. Researchers will also examine
blood samples from recovered patients to evaluate the levels of
neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and other aspects of
their immune profile, which may point the way toward short- and
long-term therapeutic options.
Biogen employees who contracted and have recovered from
COVID-19, as well as people identified as close contacts of those
individuals -- regardless of whether they were confirmed as having
COVID-19 -- are eligible to participate. Partners HealthCare,
Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital are
coordinating the outreach and sample collection effort.
Data from blood samples will be generated at the Broad
Institute, and de-identified. The biobank will then provide a
unique, anonymous medical and biological data set that has the
potential to shed light on the biology of the virus and illuminate
pathways for potential vaccines, treatments, and other
breakthroughs. The biobank will also store frozen samples, which
may inform future research with appropriate patient consent. Biogen
will have the same level of access to the biobank as researchers
around the world, which means it will not have access to
identifiable information, nor will the company know which employees
and close contacts volunteered to participate.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a very direct, very personal
impact on our Biogen community,” said Maha Radhakrishnan, M.D.,
Chief Medical Officer at Biogen. “We are uniquely positioned to
contribute to advancing COVID-19 science in an organized and
deliberate way so we can all gain a better understanding of this
virus. Many Biogen colleagues have been eager to find ways to help
others during this pandemic, and it is our hope that this biobank
will provide hope and essential information during this difficult
time. It is an opportunity to activate and bring together our
commitment to science with the needs of humanity, and we are proud
to participate.”
“Patients who have volunteered to donate data to accelerate the
shared understanding of the disease play a crucial role in the
global effort to overcome COVID-19. Through a shared biobank,
researchers will be able to identify new patterns and drastically
expand our knowledge of a disease,” said Eric S. Lander, President
and Founding Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
“We are enormously grateful to the Biogen employees, their family
members, and other close contacts who have volunteered to take part
in this essential effort.”
The collaboration began when several Biogen employees, still
recovering from COVID-19, began to consider ways they could
contribute their own medical information to research efforts
underway at Biogen and beyond. Biogen leaders reached out to
several partners in the hospital and biomedical community,
including Deborah Hung, a core faculty member of the Broad
Institute where she serves as the co-director of the Infectious
Disease and Microbiome Program, and a professor in the Departments
of Genetics and Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Divisions
of Infectious Disease and Pulmonary and Critical Care and
Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General
Hospital.
“The ability to collaborate directly with a cohort of local
patients who were among the first in Massachusetts to contract
COVID-19, and partner with leading health care and biomedical and
research institutions across Kendall Square and the Boston area,
allows us to launch many critical research approaches at once,”
Hung said. “Thanks to these patients and their close contacts,
we’ll gain insights into the biology of how the disease moved
through a relatively small group of the larger population, early in
the local life-cycle in Massachusetts. Just as important, we’ll be
able to evaluate the levels of neutralizing antibodies against
SARS-CoV-2, and this may offer some options for therapies in the
near term. We’re grateful to these individuals for their
willingness to participate, and hope that by sharing their data,
researchers everywhere will be able to make new discoveries that
point the way toward effective treatments.”
“Our investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham
and Women’s Hospital have been working around-the-clock on several
promising clinical trials that we hope will lead to effective
treatments for COVID-19. But patient participation in research is
critical and the establishment of this biobank is a significant
advancement for the research community and the broader patient
population,” said Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH, Chief Academic Officer at
Partners HealthCare. “Through this collaboration with Biogen and
their employees who have volunteered to share their information, we
will be able to learn significantly more about the characteristics
and development of this disease and make important discoveries that
will lead to treatments for the patients we care for and those
around the world.”
About BiogenAt 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 as well as
related therapeutic adjacencies. One of the world’s first global
biotechnology companies, Biogen was founded in 1978 by Charles
Weissmann, Heinz Schaller, Kenneth Murray, 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 approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy,
commercializes biosimilars of advanced biologics, and is focused on
advancing research programs in multiple sclerosis and
neuroimmunology, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, neuromuscular
disorders, movement disorders, ophthalmology, immunology,
neurocognitive disorders, acute neurology, and pain.
We routinely post information that may be important to investors
on our website at www.biogen.com. To learn more, please visit
www.biogen.com and follow us on social media – Twitter,
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About the Broad Institute of MIT and
HarvardBroad Institute of MIT and Harvard was launched in
2004 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform
medicine. The Broad Institute seeks to describe all the molecular
components of life and their connections; discover the molecular
basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to
diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools,
methods, and data openly to the entire scientific community.
Founded by MIT, Harvard, Harvard-affiliated hospitals, and the
visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the
Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff, and students
from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities
and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and
public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. To learn
more, visit www.broadinstitute.org and follow @broadinstitute.
Biogen Safe Harbor This news release contains
forward-looking statements, including statements made pursuant to
the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995, about a COVID-19 biobank; potential research
programs for COVID-19 and the related results; the potential
advancement of COVID-19 science; and the anticipated benefits and
potential of the consortium. These statements may be identified by
words such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,”
“expect,” “forecast,” “goal,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “possible,”
“potential,” “will,” “would,” and other words and terms of similar
meaning. You should not place undue reliance on these statements or
the scientific data presented.
These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in
such statements, including without limitation actual timing and the
research conducted by the consortium; uncertainty of success in the
research efforts by the consortium; the risks of other unexpected
hurdles, costs or delays; and third party collaboration risks. The
foregoing sets forth many, but not all, of the factors that could
cause actual results to differ from Biogen’s expectations in any
forward-looking statement. Investors should consider this
cautionary statement, as well as the risk factors identified in
Biogen’s most recent annual or quarterly report and in other
reports it has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. These statements are based on Biogen’s current beliefs
and expectations and speak only as of the date of this news
release. Biogen does not undertake any obligation to publicly
update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future developments or otherwise.
MEDIA CONTACT:David Caouette +1 617 679
4945public.affairs@biogen.com BROAD INSTITUTE MEDIA CONTACT:Karen
Zusi617-714-8600communications@broadinstitute.org |
INVESTOR CONTACT:Joe Mara+1 781 464 2442
IR@biogen.com |
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