"Historic" Alzheimer's Drug Helps Slow Down Cognitive Decline: Reports

A clinical trial of a drug has proven that it can help slow down cognitive decline in patients with early stage Alzheimer's, the most common type of dementia.

The developers of the drug called Lecanemab, Eisai Co. and partner Biogen Inc., had announced the results of the large-scale clinical trial in September. It had shown that the drug helped slow down the pace of cognitive decline by 27 per cent over 18 months in those suffering from an early stage of Alzheimer's. With this, according to the companies, they achieved the main goal of the trial.

The detailed data of the study, where out of 1,795 volunteers 898 of them were given Lecanemab and the others a placebo, has been published in the New England of Journal of Medicine. It confirmed that Lecanemab can effectively slow the progression of the disease.

The drug is an antibody therapy that targets clumps of a toxic protein called amyloid that builds up in the brain of Alzheimer's patients and led to a slower decline in cognitive function.

Several researchers have lauded the results of the drug describing it as historic and momentous. “This is the first drug that provides a real treatment option for Alzheimer's patients. While the clinical benefits appear somewhat limited, it can be expected that they will become more apparent over time,” Bart De Strooper, director of the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London, was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

While the new therapy looks promising, it is associated with some serious side effects including brain swelling and bleeding. Out of the 1,795 volunteers, 21.3 per cent of those who received the drug experienced brain bleeding and brain swelling while only 9.3 per cent of those on placebo faced these issues. Most of these cases were asymptomatic but 2.8 per cent who were given Lecanemab had symptomatic brain swelling, according to the developers.