New Alzheimer’s drug slows down disease by a third

After the second drug in less than a year has now been shown to slow the disease, experts say we are now “on the cusp” of drugs being available, something which had recently seemed “impossible”.

The new drug, donanemab, works 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 they are engineered to clear a 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 the disease.

Dr Cath Mummery, clinical lead for the cognitive-disorders clinic at the UK’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, said “The decades-long battle to find treatments that change Alzheimer’s disease is changing.

“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.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (jacquelinevance@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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