The European Commission has given the green light to a medication designed to treat Alzheimer’s disease at the early stage, the first treatment of this type to be authorized in the European Union.
Rather than attacking the symptoms of the disease, Lecanemab, a monoclonal antibody, targets its underlying process, allowing to reduce and therefore slow down the patient’s cognitive decline.
The drug, which is already available in other countries (United States, in particular), where it is marketed under the name of Leqembi, will however be available only for a very specific category of patients with Alzheimer’s, far from representing a majority.
The European Medicines Agency ((EMA) had initially made a negative opinion for its European market, believing that the expected profits did not make the weight in the face of the risks listed.
Read also: AI can help the rehabilitation of a victim of a stroke
In November 2024, she finally issued a positive opinion for the marketing of this product for the benefit of a determined type of patients: those who have light cognitive disorders or light dementia linked to an early Alzheimer, and have only one copy or even any of the APOE4 gene. This gene is a significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
According to EMA, these patients presented in the trials a lower risk than others to suffer from serious side effects.
The drug, which is inject as intravenous, every two weeks, will be marketed on the European market by the Eisai pharmaceutical firm.
Alzheimer’s disease is at the origin of 60 to 70% of dementia cases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, including around 220,000 in Belgium.
Map with map
Related news :