Prothena revives its former lead drug, aiming for a smaller population with more severe cases

A high-profile AL amyloidosis program once left for dead has gotten new life.

Prothena is pushing forward with its former lead candidate NEOD001, now called birtamimab, in a Phase III study despite the experimental drug’s crash and burn in a Phase IIb trial roughly three years ago. The study evaluated birtamimab in rare, second-line cases of the disease, and researchers also looked at the frontline setting in a Phase III that had been expected to fail.