The first drug to slow Alzheimer's
Amyloid is cleared from the brain, and decline slows by about a quarter.
- When
- Known to
- ± 12 hours
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
Lecanemab was fully approved in the United States on 6 July 2023, the first treatment shown to change the course of Alzheimer's rather than its symptoms. The effect is modest and the drug carries a risk of brain swelling and bleeding requiring regular scans. After thirty years of failure it vindicated the amyloid hypothesis just enough to keep the argument going.