A study over the last few years on Alzheimer's reported positive results this week. A new drug called lecanemab has been shown to slow down the progression of symptoms of people with mild Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Joy Snider, a Washington University neurologist, headed up the local clinical trials of the drug. She told KMOX that it blocks beta amyloid plaques. The buildup of those plaques is seen in Alzheimers' patients.
"Many drugs have tried to work on these plaques over the years, and none of them today have been shown to actually have much benefit to help slow down the memory and thinking problems," Dr. Snider said. "In this study, the drugs did slow down the memory and thinking changes and slowed down the accumulation of amyloid. And really, it checked every box in the study that it was supposed to."
She explained that it's a very positive result because it is the first drug that attacks what doctors believe to be the root cause of the disease.
She added that once the drug does get approved, there may be some requirements for patients to not be on certain other medications, but those will all be determined by the FDA.
Dr. Snider said there are some side effects on the brain that are mostly seen on MRI scans.
"They involve tiny areas of bleeding or swelling in the brain. Usually the side effects people don't even know they have them, we just see them on a scan. But sometimes they can be symptomatic," she said. "And there are rare cases where people have significant bleeding in the brain. So in order to be on this medication, it's really important that people have frequent MRI scans particularly early on to make sure that they're not having these complications."
Dr. Snider said the drug could get FDA approval sometime in the spring or summer, as it's on an accelerated pathway. It will also need approval from insurers before it'll be widely available.
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