New hope for Alzheimer vics

An experimental drug therapy slowed mental decline by 30 percent in Alzheimer’s patients who got the highest dose in a study, and it removed much of the sticky plaque gumming up their brains, the drug’s makers said Wednesday.

Although BAN2401, from Eisai and Biogen, did not meet its statistical goals in a study of 856 participants, company officials said that 161 people who got the highest dose every two weeks for 18 months did significantly better than 245 people who were given a placebo.

The research, which was led by company scientists and has not been reviewed by outside scientists, involved too small a group of subjects to be definitive and the results must be confirmed, dementia experts said.

But Maria Carrillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, which sponsored the Chicago con- ference where the results were announced, said “We’re cautiously optimistic.”

“A 30 percent slowing of decline is something I would want my family member to have,” and the drug’s ability to clear the brain plaques “looks pretty amazing,” she said.

About 50 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer’s is the most common type. While some medications ease symptoms, there is no cure.

Some previous efforts to develop a drug to slow the disease may have been tried too late, after much brain damage had already occurred. BAN2401 was used in people with early Alzheimer’s, and it works at an earlier step in formation of the brain plaques.

Eighty-one percent of people on the highest dose saw all signs of the plaques disappear after 18 months, an Eisai official said.