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STORY: “The report of this successful phase three trial in early Alzheimer's disease will change the landscape of Alzheimer's treatment in this country and worldwide".

The results of a key Alzheimer’s drug trial on Wednesday – have reignited decades old hopes that targeting a specific protein helps slow down the fatal brain disease.

Eisai Co and Biogen said their experimental drug significantly slowed progress of the disease by 27% compared to a placebo. Offering the promise of an effective treatment to desperate patients and their families.

Dr. Lawrence Honig, professor of Neurology at Columbia University Medical Center was one of the investigators on this trial:

“What's significant about it is that given that the doses that was given in the fashion it was given over the time period it was given and to the people it was given in this diverse population, it did manage to slow down the clinical progression. Functionally and cognitively, it seems they did better. And so that is a dramatic result. And we hope, is the first step towards many drugs that we might use separately or together to try to improve the plight of people affected by this disease.”

Nearly all Alzheimer's drugs have stumbled in trials.

Doctors are now hopeful that by removing this particular protein in the brain with this new drug, they can delay the progression of Alzheimers – which affects an estimated 55 million people worldwide.

“We would be all very pleased to have a drug that reversed Alzheimer's disease and made people back to normal. But that does seem a little bit far off. We would even be very, very happy right now to have a drug that stopped it cold. And that even seems a little bit far off. But at the moment, we seem to have a drug, lecanemab, that seems to decrease the speed of progression. And I think that's an enormous advance in and of itself beyond the symptomatic medications that we've been using to date.”