The FDA Approves New Drug For The Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

 

The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. The disease causes the death of neurons in the brain, resulting in cognitive decline. Dementia is more common in the elderly and is becoming a major health concern . The Food and Drug Administration approved the a new drug lecanemab. The monoclonal antibody infusion is designed to stop the progression of those with mild cognitive decline. The development of this drugs is not much of a victory. Depending on when the disease is detected, the drug would not be effective. Late detection  would not help those who are  in the later stages of the disease. According to the data by both Biogen and Eisai it only slowed cognitive decline by 27 %. The drug also does have side effects. Some experienced bleeding in the brain and swelling. Hemorrhages and brain swelling could cause more health complications. The benefits of the medication are too limited to be useful. It appears that pharmaceutical corporations want to profit off Alzheimer's disease, rather than developing quality medication or finding a cure. Lecanemab is not the only medication for dementia developed by Biogen. Aduhelm was released in 2021. It got approval from the FDA without consulting the advisory committee. The lack of funds and research mean that more people could die from dementia. Pharmaceutical corporations have more influence over the development of treatments rather than  medical researchers. The motivation is about profit maximization, rather than biomedical research. More drugs will emerge in the coming years, but that does not mean an improvement for those with the disease.