Dec 08, 2022 | News
Alzheimer’s is a very complicated disease and treatment for it has always been extremely difficult. It’s been 20 years since the last drug for Alzheimer’s was licenced in the UK. Since then, large advancements have been made as scientists now understand more about the disease and what causes it. The experimental drug lecanemab, which is a monoclonal antibody, has recently made the news with claims that it appears to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s.
What was discovered?
On the 29th of November at the Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease, the eagerly awaited results from the recent lecanemab trials were presented. There was a lot of excitement around the news since promising evidence had been announced to the press two months prior.
Phase 3 of the trial was conducted at 235 sites across North America and involved 1,795 adults between the ages of 50 to 90, who had mild cognitive impairment due to early Alzheimer’s disease or mild Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia. The participants were randomly assigned to receive 10mg of lecanemab via intravenous infusions every 2 weeks, with the other half receiving a placebo. This phase of the trial lasted 18 months and during this time scientists found that lecanemab reduced the cognitive decline of participants by 27%.
Looking into the future
The officials at Biogen and Eisai, the developers of lecanemab, have confidence that these latest trials provide hope for the Alzheimer’s community. Michel Vounatos, the Chief Executive officer at Biogen, recently released a statement claiming that ‘today’s announcement gives patients, and their families hope the lecanemab if approved, can potentially slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and provide a clinically meaningful impact on cognition and function.’ He expressed the importance of the trial and explained key information about how ‘the study shows the removal of aggregated amyloid beta in the brain associated with the slowing of disease in patients at the early of the disease stage.’
Treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is currently very limited due to its complexity, but this trial helps to prove that there is hope in finding an effective treatment.
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