Alzheimer's: New drug can reduce disease symptoms by up to 35%
The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced that their Alzheimer’s drug, Donanemab, has successfully slowed memory and thinking decline in a rigorous phase 3 trial. Experts said we were now "on the cusp" of drugs being available, something that had recently seemed "impossible". The announcement makes this the second drug to show positive results in the last six months.
According to Lilly’s press release, the trial showed that participants who took Donanemab had a slower rate of decline in memory and thinking skills than those who did not receive the drug. However, it also caused severe side effects for some participants.
Donanemab removes the abnormal buildup of a protein called amyloid from the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. As with other drugs that have emerged recently, Donanemab works by removing a build-up of the amyloid protein – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s – from the brain. In people with Alzheimer’s, the amyloid protein builds up and becomes plaque. Clumps of plaque can block brain synapses and lead to inflammation. Over time, the plaque can spread throughout the brain as Alzheimer’s disease progresses.
The Alzheimer’s Association said the results from the Lilly trial were the “strongest” released to date for an Alzheimer’s drug and suggested an “inflection point” for treatment of the disease.
Lilly’s chief executive David Ricks told CNBC he expected full approval of Donanemab by the end of the year, and it would be priced at a similar range as other Alzheimer’s treatments.