New drug from Switzerland: great hope for Alzheimer’s patients

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Great hope in the fight against forgetting: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first drug to interfere with the course of Alzheimer’s. The drug Leqembi aims to combat not only the symptoms of the disease, but also the cause.

It was developed by the US company Biogen in conjunction with the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai and contains the lecanemab antibody. Biogen manufactures the active ingredient in Luterbach, Solothurn, where the company set up some large biotech factories a few years ago.

Available in Switzerland next year

“Today represents a breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease,” Biogen CEO Christopher Viehbacher told “Tages-Anzeiger.” A new era begins for the previously incurable disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 30 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s.

Even if the drug is produced in Switzerland, it has not yet been licensed in this country. The corresponding application was received in May by Swissmedic, which is responsible for the approval of new drugs in Switzerland. “Tages-Anzeiger” wrote that a corresponding decision can be expected in the fall of 2024.

Around 500 employees currently work at the plant in Luterbach SO. If the drug is successful in Switzerland, Biogen will not hire any more employees. An additional production facility is planned in the USA.

The sooner it can be treated

According to a clinical trial of 1,795 participants with early-stage Alzheimer’s, after a year and a half, Leqembi was able to slow cognitive decline by 27 percent compared to patients taking a placebo. The drug is currently approved in the US for patients whose Alzheimer’s disease is not yet very advanced. It is injected intravenously every two weeks.

It is not yet clear whether and to what extent the new drug will slow the course of the disease over a longer period of time. (he)

Source :Blick