Alzheimer’s disease has wrecked the hopes of countless drug researchers as thoroughly as the lives of its many sufferers. But persistence pays. Eli Lilly’s new drug donanemab significantly slows memory loss, the US company revealed this week. It is on track to win the second approval this year of a drug capable of altering the course of the disease.
Donanemab removes a toxic protein called amyloid. This partly vindicates scientists who believe countering amyloid is key to treating Alzheimer’s. The advance is shared with a similar drug, lecanemab, made by US biotech Biogen and Japan’s Eisai.
It paves the way for a whole new class of treatments for dementia, rife among the ageing populations of the developed world.