New Alzheimer’s drug slows disease by a third
We could be entering the era of Alzheimer’s treatments after the second drug in under a year has been shown to slow the disease.
Experts said we were now “on the cusp” of drugs being available, something that had recently seemed “impossible”.
The company Eli Lilly has reported its drug – donanemab – slows the pace of Alzheimer’s by about a third.
However, two volunteers, and possibly a third, died as a result of dangerous swelling in the brain.
Donanemab works in the same way as lecanemab, which created headlines around the world when it was proven to slow the disease.
Both are antibodies like those the body makes to attack viruses. But these are engineered to clear sticky gunk from the brain, called beta-amyloid.
Amyloid builds up in the spaces between brain cells, forming distinctive plaques that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s.
“The decades-long battle to find treatments that change Alzheimer’s disease is changing,” Dr. Cath Mummery, the clinical lead for the cognitive disorders clinic at the UK’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, said.
“We are now entering the time of disease modification, where we might realistically hope to treat and maintain someone with Alzheimer’s disease, with long-term disease management rather than palliative and supportive care.”