Experts predict that groundbreaking drug will usher in a “new era” in the fight against dementia | Global expansion

Experts say drugs to prevent or slow Alzheimer's disease are on the horizon as the fight against dementia enters a “new era”.

Jeff Cummings, a professor of neuroscience and health at the University of Nevada, said advances in science are producing medicines that can be used in even the most remote and resource-poor areas of the world, thereby “democratizing” treatment. He said that it is growing.

An estimated 50 million people worldwide live with dementia. 2/3 or more Of these, they live in low-income and middle-income countries.

In 2024, the first drug that can change the course of Alzheimer's disease hits the market. Eisai and Biogen's lecanemab and Eli Lilly's donanemab have been approved by drug watchdogs in many Western countries. including the UK And the United States.

“I’m really excited about this,” Cummings said. “We are truly in a new era. We have opened the door to understanding and manipulating the biology of Alzheimer's disease for the benefit of patients.”

Mr Cummings acknowledged that high prices, complex dosing techniques and the requirement for advanced technology to monitor patients meant that newly approved drugs “will not be widely available around the world”. Ta.

Neither is available on the NHS yet This is because in the UK it costs around £20,000 to £25,000 per patient per year. Additional tests and scans will likely be double that number.

But Mr Cummings said they had provided evidence of how to target dementia, adding: “This learning opens the door to many types of new treatments, and those drugs can be exported around the world.'' It can be done,” he said. Currently, 127 drugs are under clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease.

Cummings, who works with numerous pharmaceutical companies on clinical trials and new drug development, says that lecanemab and donanemab, which help the body clear amyloid plaques in the brain, slow their decline by about 30%.

Before treatment, patients require a diagnosis confirmed by a high-tech PET scan or lumbar puncture. Brain scans are required for follow-up. Many countries lack the necessary equipment and expertise, and drugs are administered intravenously, creating further constraints.

However, Cummings highlighted the recent decision by the U.S. regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, to allow diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on blood tests as an entry criterion for trials of dementia drugs.

This could pave the way for blood tests that look for dementia 'biomarkers' to be used in clinic diagnosis instead of expensive scans.

meanwhile, Test results The new drug could instead be given by injection under the skin, suggesting it could open the door to home administration by nurses and caregivers.

“Ultimately, we need an oral medication or a pill that can be taken once a day,” Cummings said, speaking alongside Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) CEO Paola Barbarino after the group's year-end forecast event. .

The tablet form of semaglutide (better known as the injectable weight-loss drug Ozempic) is already in clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease, with results expected in the second half of 2025. Cummings, who is leading these trials, said there is good reason to think the drug will work. It is effective by reducing inflammation, which is the “fundamental part of disease.”

He is supporting clinical trials in low- and middle-income countries to increase knowledge of how drugs work among different populations and to increase scientific capacity and knowledge about dementia in these regions. He called for greater involvement.

Is there a chance that Alzheimer's disease can be cured? “It's been difficult,” Cummings said. But, he added.

“We know enough about the manipulation of biology and how it starts that I think we can control the process by which the disease starts in my lifetime (although I'm not young so it might take a little longer)” It will not develop in the brain.”

experts believe 40% of Alzheimer's disease It may already be preventable by targeting key risk factors such as smoking, alcohol use and air pollution.

Mr Barbarino said prices needed to come down for low- and middle-income countries to “think” about supplying drugs that could change the course of Alzheimer's disease.

Attitudes will also need to change, she said, adding: “When you talk to ministries of health in some poor countries, they say they don't have dementia in their countries, but of course that's not true.” Ta.