New Alzheimer’s Drug Slows Cognitive Decline in Clinical Trial

The Biogen-developed treatment, called lecanemab, appears to have a more clear-cut effect on slowing the disease than the company’s previous Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm.

Written byDan Robitzski

| 2 min read

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Illustration of light blue neurons with white amyloid plaques accumulating on their axons.

Neurons with amyloid plaques accumulating on their axons

Image credit:© ISTOCK.COM, SELVANEGRA

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Update (November 30): The data described in Biogen and Esai's announcement was published in The New England Journal of Medicine Tuesday (November 29). Alongside the effect of slowing cognitive decline in some Alzheimer's patients, the paper shows that lecanemab may come with an increased risk of brain swelling and bleeding, The New York Times reports.

Update (November 28): A 65-year-old woman participating in a clinical trial for lecanemab died from a severe brain hemorrhage shortly after she was treated with the drug, Science reports. This is the second fatal brain hemorrhage among participants in the lecanemab trial, raising suspicions that the drug may interact dangerously with blood-thinning medications. In response, lecanemab’s manufacturer Eisai declined to comment on the specific cases, telling Science that “All the available safety information indicates that lecanemab therapy is not associated with an increased risk of death overall or from any specific cause.”

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Meet the Author

Dan Robitzski
Dan is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who joined The Scientist as a reporter and editor in 2021. Ironically, Dan’s undergraduate degree and brief career in neuroscience inspired him to write about research rather than conduct it, culminating in him earning a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2017. In 2018, an Undark feature Dan and colleagues began at NYU on a questionable drug approval decision at the FDA won first place in the student category of the Association of Health Care Journalists' Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Now, Dan writes and edits stories on all aspects of the life sciences for the online news desk, and he oversees the “The Literature” and “Modus Operandi” sections of the monthly TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. Read more of his work at danrobitzski.com.
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