The Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug designed to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s, the neurodegenerative disease that impacts 6.5 million Americans, rather than simply address the disease’s various symptoms, NBC News reports.
Leqembi, developed in a joint program by Japanese drugmaker Eisai and U.S.-based drugmaker Biogen, finished a Phase 3 clinical trial with nearly 1,800 patients, with the results showing the drug slowing the disease by 27%. Noting that the drug is not a cure but instead slows down the progress of the disease, Dr. Ronald Petersen, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota said, “It’s a first step for hopefully more therapeutics in the future.”