Alzheimer’s disease affects over 55 million people globally, and for decades, the medical community had no drug proven to slow its progression. In 2025, BioArctic changed that, and the Swedish biopharma company is now navigating what comes after a breakthrough.
BioArctic: A new era with limits attached
BioArctic closed 2025 with record-high profits, driven by the global market entry of Leqembi, the world’s first drug proven to slow the progression of early Alzheimer’s disease. Company CEO Gunilla Osswald described the year as the beginning of a new era, built on two decades of foundation research that has now reached patients.
The drug’s commercial reach, however, runs through a partnership with Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai, which holds global rights to Leqembi and leads its commercialization. Per the report, BioArctic retains co-commercialization rights only in the Nordic countries, a structure that shapes what the company can and cannot do in underserved markets.
“BioArctic does not own the commercial rights to our product,” said Charlotte af Klercker, Head of Governmental Affairs and Sustainability at BioArctic. “This limits our possibilities to provide treatment for underserved markets.”
Meanwhile, to work around the constraint, BioArctic has turned to advocacy. The company recently participated in and sponsored the ADI conference, an international forum focused on raising awareness and understanding of neurodegenerative diseases globally.
Beyond Leqembi, BioArctic also carries a growing pipeline of antibodies targeting Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and additional Alzheimer’s projects, several of which draw on the company’s proprietary BrainTransporter technology.
Leaning on efficiency for sustainability
BioArctic’s 2025 Sustainability Report frames the company’s environmental commitments around two pillars. Both pillars, Sustainable Innovation and Sustainable Business, are designed to keep it grounded as the company scales.
Rather than treating sustainability as a compliance exercise, the company has tied its targets directly to the long-term remuneration models for senior executives and employees.
At the center of the environmental argument is BrainTransporter, a technology designed to actively ferry antibodies across the blood-brain barrier. By improving how effectively drugs cross into the brain, the technology reduces the amount of drug needed to achieve a therapeutic effect.
Fewer doses mean lower manufacturing volumes, reduced cost of goods, and a smaller carbon footprint across the supply chain.
“Increasing the passage of drugs across the blood-brain barrier will lower the drug load needed for effect, thus lowering cost of goods, doses needed and many other savings down the line,” said af Klerker.
BioArctic has structured its reporting to match that ambition. The company reports progress toward its annual sustainability targets on a quarterly basis and has adopted the CSRD reporting framework ahead of any legal requirement to do so.
Whether that efficiency argument satisfies investors and regulators increasingly scrutinizing biopharma’s environmental commitments, remains an open question. However, BioArctic is soldiering with the mantra that better science and lower emissions point in the same direction.