For those interested. This is similar to Aduhelm in that it is an amyloid binding drug. Amyloids proteins have long been thought to be central to Alzheimer's disease since it was first described by Dr. Alois Alzheimer in 1906, where during his autopsy of a 50-year who died while suffering memory loss, disorientation, and other classical symptoms of the disease noticed "senile plaque" had accumulated on the brain which is usually found in much older patients. In the 1980s chemical analysis of the plaque indicated that it was made of beta-amyloids and from there we've been attempting to target that in order to prevent Alzheimer's disease.
The statement that the drug "will" slow Alzheimer's is editorial so to say. After their third phase trail, the results were sobering.
27% decrease in the rate of progression for patients treated with Leqembi, compared to those receiving a placebo.
Which 27% is still 27%. But this drug is looking to go for a price of $23,000 to $27,000 per year (drug cost alone, infusion and doctor's office visits may shoot this price upward towards $90,000/year). Strangely the article says:
Current rules mean that it’s unlikely to be covered by Medicare.
Which there was Senate hearing where the exact opposite was indicated. Medicaid will likely have the 20% co-pay for patients. That said, for the United States, this drug will be outside of the reach of many not 65 or older.
Additionally, we're still at the nexus of this topic and not knowing full well where to go for the treatment in Alzheimer's. Many competing ideas of the full scope of Alzheimer's disease still exist from tau tangles to neuron degeneration. It's indisputable that beta-amyloids do have a part in Alzheimer's the question remains as to how large a role it plays in mental decline and the low positive outcomes of beta-amyloids has served as fuel for discussion of other ideas. That said, penicillin failed twice in clinical trials, but today nobody would question antibiotic theory, so take the failures with a grain of salt perhaps? But this all does indeed go to show, this area of research is dizzily complex and fluid to say the least.
As for the "first" distinction and that Aduhelm has been FDA approved since 2021. Leqembi is the FIRST to receive the full FDA approval. Aduhelm still operates under the accelerated approval and is still pending a full review. Much like how we had COVID vaccines approved under the accelerated program first and then in 2022 the FDA gave many of them full approval.
It's good this drug has received the first full approval for the treatment of beta-amyloids. But suffice to say, based on the approval material, we still have yet a LONG way to go in Alzheimer's research.
This is the first time I’ve opened a post on Lemmy and seen such a valuable response. Thanks for being here and taking the time to post this. Super interesting and informative stuff.
My ex wife’s dad is in the middle stages of early onset dementia (he’s in his mid-60’s) and I’m thinking it’s a bit too late for this to be helpful. But seeing this progress gives me hope for my ex-wife and her brother who both have very high risk of dementia (grandma, their dad, and their uncle all suffer(ed) from it, dad and uncle are both in similar stages with dad a couple years behind uncle… really sad shit).
I really hope we get this figured out in the next 20 years.
We are starting to see the first drugs on the market that utilize the amyloid beta pathway in some fashion because research in the 90’s and 2000’s were absolutely convinced that this pathway was the lynchpin to the disease. My understanding of the disease (I studied biotech but not Alzheimer’s specifically) is that amyloid beta plaques are more of a side effect of whatever is really going on than the main show. And unfortunately the mechanism of dementia in general is not really well understood, Alzheimer’s included.
These sobering results are not really that surprising because treating the amyloid beta plaques after they have formed is sort of like trying to prevent spoiled meat by removing the maggots that have accumulated on it.
Whenever I hear this kind of news, I always think of the people who just barely missed this. Or will miss this as it takes time to roll it out (I assume).
For sure. Dark thought, but I wonder if gen xers and millennials on their death beds will experience a novel form of grief when effective therapies for terminal illnesses are cheap and available, but need to be administered before onset to be effective. Maybe there’s a word for it in German.
Unfortunately the article states a yearly treatment cost would be about $90K with all expenses factored in. Patients with Medicare will likely not be able to get coverage for this, and Medicaid will still require a copay of 20%.
Like every other industry, pharmaceutical companies are profit driven and will maximize their revenue whenever possible, especially when they know the patient population is desperate.
A big example of this was when Pfizer discontinued their research program to cure heart disease, since it is more profitable to charge patients for statins for the rest of their life than it is to cure them.
Yeah, any news like this is heartening but I always take it with a large grain of salt. I’ve got family member affected by Alzheimer’s so it really hits home.
I have no doubt this will be excellent, but its lack of l2, l3 and right analog will limit it to some ps1 and below only. Personally I want an all in one device.
Conservative opinions and comments are always inappropriate. Always. Every word uttered by a conservative is deception, manipulation, or dog-whistling some form of hate. Every single utterance.
Conservatism is inappropriate to publish. We should be moving to extinguish the plague of hatred and anti-science idiocy rather than defending it as "free speech". Conservative speech is hate speech and should never be treated as free speech.
The USA are really weird in that regard. On the one hand very progressive, but in regards to everything sexual they (as a country/culture) are completely prudish. Why, though? They also like to fuck. Why are they so childish that they can't look at a nipple or even - god forbid - genitals? And, even worse, why can't they even talk/write about it? One of the central things or any living being, and they treat it like a disease that needs to be purged.
Sure? I would at least extend that to Europe. The scandinavian countries, France, Spain, ... they are all quite open with nude presentations in media, from what I can tell.
On my first trip to the UK (from good old prudish US of A), I was surprised to have the TV station I was watching change to porn after 9pm. Mostly because it was right after some random sitcom and then bam nudity fires up.
I think it’s great and wished that the US wasn’t such a bunch of fearful cowards.
On my first trip to the UK (from good old prudish US of A), I was surprised to have the TV station I was watching change to porn after 9pm. Mostly because it was right after some random sitcom and then bam nudity fires up.
I think it’s great and wished that the US wasn’t such a bunch of fearful cowards.
Germany is an outlier even in Europe when it comes to FKK culture, etc. Parts of scandanavia are close. I used to lurk on r/askanamerican and there would be frequent questions along the lines of “why are americans so prudish” or alternately “why are americans so promiscuous?” The former question was always asked by a person from northern Europe, usually Germany. While the latter was usually asked by someone literally anywhere else on earth. Typically Asia.
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