Amylyx did the right thing by pulling ALS drug. That’s rare and worthy of praise

On Thursday morning, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals announced that it would withdraw its ALS drug, Relyvrio, after a large clinical trial showed that the medicine, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022, was not effective.

Amylyx’s co-CEOs, Joshua Cohen and Justin Klee, had previously publicly promised that they would withdraw the drug if further testing failed to show a benefit. After they made good on that promise, STAT senior writers Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper talked through what to make of it all.

Matt: I have to say I’m impressed. Amylyx had seemed to telegraph that it would actually follow through with withdrawing the drug when the negative data were released. But I half expected that it would still find a loophole or a way to drag things out.