2023-07-17 20:50:53
The new Alzheimer’s drug from the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly seems to work better than expected in the early stages of the disease. In these patients, the drug donanemab slowed the progression of the brain-damaging disease by 60 percent, according to study data released Monday. That’s nearly double the rate Lilly reported in May for the study’s entire treatment group. The data underscores that earlier detection and diagnosis can really change the course of Alzheimer’s, said Anne White, Lilly’s board member, responsible for neuroscience.
However, the treatment also carries risks such as brain swelling – a well-known side effect of drugs like donanemab. Brain swelling occurred in more than 40 percent of patients with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease. Lilly had previously reported that 24 percent of the entire donanemab treatment group experienced brain swelling. Bleeding in the brain occurred in 31 percent of study participants in the donanemab group, compared with about 14 percent in the group receiving placebo. In addition, three deaths were associated with the treatment.
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