Medicines regulators weigh hope and hype with new Alzheimer’s drugs

Swiss medicines regulator Swissmedic is expected to decide by the end of the year whether to approve the first new drug for Alzheimer’s disease in two decades. The decision won’t be easy. Alzheimer’s disease has baffled researchers for decades. Drugmakers have poured billions into the disease, which slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, but haven’t come out with a new drug for at least 20 years. This changed in July 2023 when the US Food and Drug Administration approved lecanemab, sold under the name Leqembi, for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease. Since then, it has also been approved by authorities in Japan, China and South Korea. The drug is the first to address both the symptoms of memory loss and what's believed to be an underlying cause of the disease. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox “Last year was a major step forward for Alzheimer’s research,” said Andrea Pfeifer, founder and CEO of AC Immune, a Lausanne-based biotech firm that has ...