Sept 27 (Reuters) – Biogen and Eisai on Tuesday announced promising results for their experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, in a large trial of patients in the early stages of the disease.
According to the American and Japanese laboratories, lecanemab slowed disease-related cognitive and functional decline by 27% compared to a placebo, offering hope of a potentially effective treatment to patients and their families.
“It’s not a huge effect, but it’s a positive effect,” said Ronald Petersen, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Results from trial of 1,800 patients support long-held theory that clearing sticky deposits of a protein called amyloid beta in the brains of people with early Alzheimer’s can delay disease progression debilitating,” Eisai said.
So far, almost all drugs tested to treat Alzheimer’s disease have failed in clinical trials.
Around 55 million people worldwide live with Alzheimer’s disease and without effective treatment, that number could rise to 139 million by 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International.
The data is an “unequivocal victory” for Alzheimer’s patients and for Biogen, said Bank of Montreal analyst Evan Seigerman.
Biogen shares jumped 50% in pre-market trading on Wall Street while Eisai rose 17% in Tokyo.
Eisai, has requested approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US health authority, for an accelerated procedure to facilitate the development and evaluation of the drug. The decision is expected to be announced in early January.
Separately, the group is aiming for full approval and marketing of the drug in the United States, Europe and Japan by the end of 2023, its chief executive Haruo Naito told reporters in Tokyo.
(Reporting Deena Beasley in Los Angeles, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Natalie Grover in London, Rocky Swift in Tokyo; French version Dina Kartit, editing by Kate Entringer)