A drug for Alzheimer's, lecanemab has been hailed as a momentous breakthrough

Lecanemab, the first drug to slow the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer's disease has been heralded as momentous.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and researchers tried for decades to make a drug to treat it this drug breakthrough ended decades of failure. However, the effect of this medicine, lecanemab is small and its impact on the daily lives of people is debated. Also, this drug works only in the early stage of the disease so many of the patients would miss out without a revolution in spotting it.

Lecanemab attacks beta-amyloid, the sticky gunge that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Research in Alzheimer’s was littered with despair, duds, and disappointment so some in the medical field see these trial results as a triumphant turning point. This finding was called "momentous" by Alzheimer's Research UK.

Currently, people with the disease are given other drugs to manage their symptoms, but no drug changed the course of the disease. Lecanemab is an antibody, like the antibodies our body makes to attack bacteria and viruses. But this antibody has been engineered to tell the immune system to clear beta-amyloid from the brain.