Drug slows Alzheimer’s
HILO, Hawaii — The first eruption in 38 years of the world’s largest active volcano is attracting onlookers to a national park for “spectacular” views of the event, and it’s also dredging up bad memories among some Hawaii residents who have been through harrowing volcanic experiences in the past.
It was just four years ago that Nicole Skilling fled her home near a community where more than 700 residences were destroyed by lava. She relocated to the South Kona area, only to find herself packing her car with food and supplies this week after Mauna Loa erupted late Sunday. Officials were initially concerned that lava flowing down the side of the volcano would head toward South Kona, but scientists later assured the public that the eruption migrated to a rift zone on Mauna Loa’s northeast flank and wasn’t threatening any communities. ■
AN experimental Alzheimer’s drug modestly slowed the brain disease’s inevitable worsening — but the anxiously awaited new data leaves unclear how much difference that might make in people’s lives.
Japanese drugmaker Eisai and its US partner Biogen had announced earlier this fall that the drug lecanemab appeared to work, a badly needed bright spot after repeated disappointments in the quest for better treatments of the incurable disease.
Late on Tuesday, the companies provided full results of the study of nearly 1800 people in early stages of the mind-robbing disease.
The data was presented at an Alzheimer’s meeting in San Francisco and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Lecanemab delayed patients’ worsening by about five months over the course of the 18-month study, Eisai’s Dr Michael Irizarry told The Associated Press.
Also, lecanemab recipients were 31 per cent less likely to advance to the next stage of the disease during the study.
“That translates to more time in earlier stages” when people function better, Dr Irizarry said.
Every two weeks, study participants received intravenous lecanemab or a dummy infusion.
Researchers tracked them using an 18-point scale that measures cognitive and functional ability.
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