(Bloomberg) -- Biogen Inc. said it will resume previous studies of its controversial drug for Alzheimer’s disease, giving patients access to a treatment the biotechnology company hopes will become the first available to slow the condition that robs people of their minds and memories.

The news came as Biogen laid out detailed data on the experimental Alzheimer’s treatment aducanumab that it revived this fall after earlier declaring two studies of the medicine failures and abandoning the drug.

Company executives are making the case to rehabilitate it at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease conference in San Diego on Thursday after additional data showed the infusion, if given for long enough and at high doses, could offer some benefit.

Shares of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company were down 3.6% at 11:38 a.m. after earlier being halted pending release of the new data.

Biogen shocked researchers in March when it opted to shelve aducanumab, saying that trial results had suggested the drug was unlikely to work. The move caused investors to flee and disappointed scientists and patients who’ve hoped for decades to find a treatment for the harrowing incurable disease.

Then, in October, the company reversed itself, saying new data had come to light suggesting that aducanumab could be effective. The presentation on Thursday is the first detailed look Biogen has provided at the data behind its dramatic decision to try to salvage the thrapy.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net;Robert Langreth in New York at rlangreth@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett, Mark Schoifet

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