Alzheimer’s drug success offers hope

An American pharmaceutical company is to seek regulatory approval for a drug that it claims can slow the progress of Alzheimer’s – provided the patient is prescribed it soon enough. Aducanumab is one of many drugs that have been developed to target amyloid beta, a protein which accumulates in the brains of those living with Alzheimer’s, and which has long been seen as a likely cause of the disease. Several of these have shown promise in early tests, only to fail late stage trials – and at first, aducanumab seemed likely to go the same way. Earlier this years, its maker, Biogen, announced it was halting two large studies because initial data looked so unpromising.

But now the company has revised that judgement: it says new data from those trials indicates that aducanumab does slow Alzheimer’s – provided it is given in high enough doses, and early enough. In one set of tests, patients who were taking the drug had experienced 25% less cognitive decline after 18 months than those given a placebo. Michel Vounatsos, Biogen’s chief executive, said it is in talks with the Food and Drugs Administration and that the regulator has offered “clear support”. That, in itself, is a milestone: no other amyloid beta drug has even been submitted for approval. Biogen has yet to publish the full results of its analysis, and even if aducanumab is licensed, most current Alzheimer’s sufferers won’t benefit from it. As The Times put it, “Many questions remain, and there have been false dawns before, [but] for today, at least, Alzheimer’s scientists are savouring an unusual emotion: hope.”