Biogen and Eisai announced on Tuesday promising results for its experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in a large study of patients in the early stages of the disease.
According to the American and Japanese laboratories, the lecanemab slowed disease-related cognitive and functional decline by 27% compared to placebo, offering hope for a potentially effective treatment for patients and their families.
“It’s not a huge effect, but it’s a positive effect,” said Ronald Petersen, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The results of the 1,800-patient study support the long-held theory that sticky deposits of a protein called beta-amyloid can be cleared in the brains of people with early Alzheimer’s disease delay the progression of the disease debilitating,” Eisai said.
To date, almost all drugs tested to treat Alzheimer’s disease have failed in clinical trials.
In France by 2023?
Around 55 million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s disease and without effective treatment, that number could rise to 139 million by 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International.
The data is a “clear victory” for Alzheimer’s patients and for Biogen, said Evan Seigerman, an analyst at the Bank of Montreal.
Biogen shares are up 50% in premarket trading on Wall Street, while Eisai is up 17% in Tokyo.
Eisai has applied for an expedited review approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to facilitate the development and evaluation of the drug. The decision is expected to be announced in early January.
In addition, the group wantsfull approval and commercialization of the drug in the United States, Europe and Japan by the end of 2023its chief executive Haruo Naito told reporters in Tokyo.
New treatment slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease: A new drug significantly inhibits Alzheimer’s disease. This is shown by the results of a large-scale clinical study with almost 1,800… https://t.co/ZecSHofz37
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