The drug company Eli Lilly & Co. released a short summary of an experimental Alzheimer’s drug that helped people in a small trial.
The name of the drug is Donanemab, and it was shown to slow the decline in memory and the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) by 32% after 18 months of treatment. It worked by crossing the blood-brain barrier and clearing amyloid, a sticky protein that forms into plaques, one of the hallmark signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
This is an important breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research for several reasons. First, many experimental drugs have failed over the past several years. Second, it lends support to the hypothesis that the buildup of amyloid is an underlying cause of Alzheimer’s disease. And third, the drug helped with symptoms that are some of the most troubling – memory decline and the inability to perform activities of daily living, such as dressing, bathing or grooming one’s self.
More details will be provided soon but for now there is at least hope that a new treatment for one of the most feared diseases will be able to help millions of people.