New Alzheimer’s drug on the market after eighteen years

The regulator considers it likely that patients will benefit, but there are still great uncertainties about the ‘important’ new treatment for the disease that causes dementia.

When biotech company Biogen announced in October 2019 that it was seeking approval for the drug aducanumab, the medical world was delighted. Many pharmaceutical companies had more or less given up on the search for a good drug for slowing the disease.

Biogen had actually stopped using it in 2019, but a new analysis showed that the drug turned out to be effective. High-dose aducanumab, branded Aduhelm, over an extended period of time could have “some effectiveness” in treating Alzheimer’s, the results showed. The accumulation of certain proteins in cranial nerve cells, the cause of Alzheimer’s, can be reduced, according to the FDA.

Research into effect

The FDA has instructed Biogen to conduct research into the effect of the drug in patients. “If the drug doesn’t work as intended, then we can take steps to take it off the market,” the watchdog said in a statement.

In the United States, more than 6 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, which is associated with memory loss and loss of other mental functions.

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