New drug a likely gamechanger

Hopes are high that a new drug could make a tangible impact in one of the 21st century’s greatest health challenges – dementia.

Pharmaceutical companies Biogen and Eisai have announced they will file for market approval in the United States for aducanumab, a drug used to treat early Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of dementia.

Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), a global federation of 100 Alzheimer’s and dementia associations, has heralded the drug as potentially being ‘‘the light at the end of the tunnel’’.

At present, there is no cure for dementia and there has not been a new treatment for dementia symptoms since 2002.

But Alzheimer’s New Zealand chief executive Catherine Hall was cautious about endorsing aducanumab without seeing the dataset and research. ‘‘If the promise in the press release is proven over time, then this would be a very positive piece of news for people living with dementia.

‘‘Dementia is a very difficult condition . . . The effects get progressively worse over time and at the moment, there is no cure.’’

Aducanumab works by clearing the sticky plaques from the brain that cause Alzheimer’s.

Brain Research New Zealand investigator Dr Phil Wood was ‘‘cautiously optimistic’’ about the drug’s potential but said it could be ‘‘a gamechanger’’.

‘‘Anything that prevents the progression of Alzheimer’s disease is a hugely important and entirely desirable target.

‘‘We just need to delay the progression of the disease by a year or two, and we’d actually halve the number of people with the condition. That’s because the number of people coming up with

Dr Phil Wood

Brain Research New Zealand

the disorder would diminish considerably,’’ the geriatrician said.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a collective term for a range of degenerative neurological conditions that affect memory, thinking, behaviour and emotion.

At present, about 70,000 New Zealanders have been diagnosed with dementia, with two-thirds of them living with Alzheimer’s.

With the country’s population ageing rapidly, numbers of dementia sufferers were expected to balloon to 170,000 by 2050.

Aducanumab is a drug which targets amyloid beta – a protein that abnormally accumulates in the brains of sufferers.

Biogen and Eisai planned to seek approval for the US, European and Japanese drug markets within two years. There has been no indication on when New Zealand could be a target.

‘‘We just need to delay the progression of the disease by a year or two.’’