Eli Lilly’s experimental drug donanemab slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s by 60% for patients in the earliest stages of the brain-wasting disease, according to trial data presented at a medical meeting on Monday.
For those patients, the drug slowed cognitive decline by nearly twice the rate Lilly reported in May for the trial’s overall treatment group. The full analysis showed results were less robust for older, later-stage patients as well as those with higher levels of a protein called tau that has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease progression.
The findings underscore that “earlier detection and diagnosis can really change the trajectory of this disease,” said Anne White, president of neuroscience at Lilly.
The study showed that brain swelling, a known side effect of drugs like donanemab, occurred in more than 40% of patients with a genetic predisposition to develop Alzheimer’s.
The company had previously reported that 24% of the overall donanemab treatment group had brain swelling. Brain bleeding occurred in 31% of the donanemab group and about 14% of the placebo group.
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