Finally!!! Alzheimer’s drug gets approval in the US

20 years after, the US has finally approved the first treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

The approval was however done by regulators in the United States.

Alzheimer is a neurologic disorder that causes dementia, and it affects a person’s behavioural and social level.

The name of the drug is Aducanumab, and it is an antibody that targets amyloid, a protein that forms aberrant clumps in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, causing cell damage and dementia symptoms such as: memory and cognitive issues, problems with communicating, and perplexity

Research from BBC states that 100,000 people in the UK who have slight symptoms of the disease can be liable to get the drug, but it would take up to a year before they can get approval from their UK regulator.

Aducanumab late-stage worldwide studies involving roughly 3,000 patients were discontinued in March 2019 after research revealed it was no better than a dummy treatment at reducing the development of memory and thinking issues when given as a monthly infusion.

However, in that year, Biogen, a US pharmaceutical company, looked at further data and found that greater dosages of aducanumab considerably delayed cognitive decline.

Alzheimer’s disease is expected to affect more than 30 million people worldwide, the majority of whom are over 65 years old.

A precise diagnosis, involving a comprehensive 3D brain scan, will almost certainly be required for the approximately 500,000 people in the UK who are eligible for aducanumab, and who are primarily in their 60s or 70s, as well at an early stage of diagnosis.

Over 100 putative Alzheimer’s treatments have failed in the last decade. Aducanumab isn’t a miraculous medicine, and many doctors are skeptical of its efficacy – but its approval in the United States will be a big boost for dementia research, which has historically been underfunded in comparison to cancer or heart disease.

Source: BBC News