Apellis’s pegcetacoplan – approved for two other indications – will not go forward in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis after a Phase II failure, two days after Wave Life made a similar call in the neurodegenerative disease.

The company announced detailed data for the drug in the HEALEY-ALS Platform Trial, where the cohort of the Phase II/III study testing it nevertheless failed to meet the primary endpoint.

Pridopidine is the latest ALS drug candidate to miss the primary endpoint in the HEALEY-ALS platform study, but the S1R agonist did indicate potential benefits in speech and a key biomarker of the disease.

Pfizer is buying Biohaven's migraine portfolio, but the rest of the pipeline is poised to be spun out and there have been two development setbacks. Despite verdiperstat's failure in ALS, the field had a same-day win with Amylyx's Relyvrio approval.