That Biogen Meeting Looms Ever Larger

Biogen resurrects aducanumab, arguing expanded data set supports FDA filing in Alzheimer's | FierceBiotech

In understanding the history of this pandemic, US edition, the Biogen meeting in Boston is several months back in the rear view mirror, but looms ever larger as it is studied.

In late winter 2020, Biogen -- NASDAQ listed, and indeed a NASDAQ 100 component -- hosted a conference. I'm sure sure what the specific subject of the conference was, but it involved flying specialists in from Europe, from countries that were already contending with severe outbreaks of Covid-19. If you like irony you can find it in the fact that a company known for its IP portfolio in bio-med technology acted so naively.

The conference proved to be a super-spreader event. In retrospect, it has "pandemic" written on it in neon. A lot of people from all over the US and the world gathered together in confined spaces to meet. Only a small number of them had any of the virus in their system when they got together, but many seemed to have had it when they went their separate ways -- again, to places all over the US and the world.

I am reminded of the movie I AM LEGEND, in which the zombification of the world is said to have begun with a cure for cancer. Biogen conferences are precisely the places to which one would go were one looking for news about cancer treatments, after all.

Best not to think about it too much. But, reader, wear your mask.

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