(Lauren Neergard/ CBC MNews) — Another experimental Alzheimer’s drug can modestly slow patients’ inevitable worsening — by about four to seven months, researchers reported Monday.
Eli Lilly and Co. is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of donanemab. If cleared, it would be only the second Alzheimer’s treatment convincingly shown to delay the mind-robbing disease, after the recently approved Leqembi from Japanese drugmaker Eisai.
“Finally there’s some hope, right, that we can talk about,” Lilly’s Dr. John Sims told reporters Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Amsterdam.
“We don’t cure the disease,” he said. “Diabetes doesn’t have a cure either. It doesn’t mean you can’t have very meaningful treatments for patients.”
Lilly announced in May that donanemab appeared to work, but on Monday the full results of a study of 1,700 patients were published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and presented at the Alzheimer’s conference. (…)