medicine
Jul 18, 2023 | 4:09 PM
“I am fully functional and my memory is much better than before,” said the Ohio grandmother, who is taking the first drug proven to slow Alzheimer’s disease.
“I was very active, drove regularly, gardened, cooked and read a lot of books to get my life back on track,” says Joan Murtaugh, 77. . told the sun.
“From our point of view, this drug is almost a miracle,” added her husband, Larry, 77.
Joanne was one of the first to take the drug Lekhembi (lecanemab) during a clinical trial at the Cleveland Clinic.
But Joan didn’t know if she was going to take the drug or a placebo. Nevertheless, she took a chance and entered her clinical trial.
“I knew the Cleveland Clinic was top notch surgery, and when I figured they had drugs that might help, and I desperately needed help, I turned to it. I was trying to,” Joanne said. “I didn’t think anything of it.”
Rekembi is the first drug proven to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. debilitating neurological disease It gets worse over time, causing memory loss, motor skills decline, and other complications.
The drug, made by the pharmaceutical companies Biogen and Eisai, helps slow these symptoms by tracking the “underlying disease process,” said Teresa Bracchio of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. said in a statement.
Another breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug, donanemab, developed by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, has successfully completed clinical trials and is expected to be approved by the FDA this fall.
These new drugs “are just the beginning of a new era in treating Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. Gil Rabinovich, director of the Memory Aging Center at the University of California, San Francisco. wrote in a JAMA editorial.
Joan’s memory problems began in 2016, and tests confirmed she had mild cognitive impairment, an early stage of amnesia. However, her 10-15% of people with this condition will develop dementia.
Joanne is currently undergoing cognitive and speech therapy, and at home, she injects Lekembi once a week with an EpiPen-like auto-injector.
“When Joanne was diagnosed, I was worried that this was going to go into a downward spiral,” the husband said. “In the old days, talking about Alzheimer’s was like looking into the abyss.
“This drug gives me great hope for the future. We’ve seen an improvement in Joan’s short-term memory. She’s a fighter,” added Larry.
“Interestingly, the main reason people go into clinical trials is that it may not work for me, but it may work for others,” said Babak Tusi, Ph.D., of the Cleveland Clinic. Told. “They want to pay for it upfront.”
