New drug slows Alzheimer's by a third, bolstering treatment approach

An experimental Alzheimer's drug developed by Eli Lilly slowed cognitive decline by 35 per cent in a late-stage trial, the company said on Wednesday.

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It provides what experts say is the strongest evidence yet that removing sticky amyloid plaques from the brain benefits patients with the fatal disease.

Lilly's drug, donanemab, met all goals of the trial, the company said. 

It slowed progression of Alzheimer's by 35 per cent compared with a placebo in 1,182 people with early-stage disease whose brains had deposits of two key Alzheimer's proteins, beta amyloid as well as intermediate levels of tau, a protein linked with disease progression and brain cell death.

The study also evaluated the drug in 552 patients with high levels of tau and found that when both groups were combined, donanemab slowed progression by 29 per cent based on a commonly used scale of dementia progression known as the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale.

Using that scale, experts said Lilly's findings were roughly on a par with Eisai and Biogen's lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi, which reduced cognitive decline by 27 per cent in patients with early Alzheimer's in a study published in 2022.

The results drove Lilly's shares to a record high, up more than 6 per cent at US$429.85.