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Source: The post is based on the article “What is the new US FDA-approved treatment for early Alzheimer’s?” published in Indian Express on 10th January 2023
What is the News?
The US Food and Drug Administration(FDA) has approved a new Alzheimer’s drug named Lecanemab which is to be marketed as Leqembi.
What is Alzheimer disease?
What is Lecanemab?
Lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi, is a medication approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Working of the drug: The drug is a monoclonal antibody that binds itself to a protein in the brain called Amyloid beta.
– By doing so, it helps the body destroy these proteins. People with Alzheimer’s have high levels of Amyloid beta in their brains and, in the trial, Leqembi significantly lowered those amounts.
– However, it remains unclear whether the protein causes Alzheimer’s or how reducing it affects the disease’s progression.
Who can use this drug?
The drug should be used only for patients in the early and mild stages of Alzheimer’s disease, matching the status of patients in the clinical trials of the drug.
– It instructs doctors not to treat patients without doing tests to confirm that they have one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s: a buildup of the protein amyloid, which Leqembi (like Aduhelm) attacks.
