American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced that its experimental drug for the disease Alzheimer’s disease significantly slowed the cognitive and functional decline, the results are described by experts as “excellent”.

Donanemab achieved all primary and secondary study objectives, slowing disease progression by 35-36% compared with placebo in 1,182 people diagnosed with early disease.

In a study conducted on another group of 552 high-risk people, the drug was less effective, slowing the course of the disease in both groups by 22% on a scale developed by Lilly and by 29% based on the more commonly used progression of dementia.

Lilly stated that will promptly submit its results to the US Food and Drug Administration. as well as other global regulators.

“We are very pleased that donanemab has produced positive clinical results with compelling statistical significance in people with Alzheimer’s disease in this trial,” Daniel Skowronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific and medical officer, said in a statement.

This follows a 27% reduction in wear found for biogen and Eisai’s lecanumab, which was also a blockbuster and was approved by the US in January.

Like lekanemab (also known by the brand name Leqembi), donemab targets beta-amyloid.

Nick Fox of the British Dementia Research Institute said that while the full data set is not yet available, the results announced in a press release “confirm that we are in a new era of Alzheimer’s disease modification.”

“This clinical trial is a real breakthrough, demonstrating a remarkable 35 percent slowdown in cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients with a high beta-amyloid but low tau load,” added Mark Bouchet, team leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London. .

Side effects included temporary swelling in other parts of the brain, which occurred in almost a quarter of treated patients, and microbleeding, which occurred in 31% of patients in the treatment group and 14% of patients in the placebo group.

Source: Reuters, AFP.