New Alzheimer's drug slows mental decline

An experimental drug from Biogen Idec Inc became the first Alzheimer's treatment to significantly slow cognitive decline and reduce what is believed to be brain-destroying plaque in patients with early and mild forms of the disease, according to a small study likely to reignite hopes of a treatment.

Alzheimer's affects 15 million people worldwide, a number that is expected to grow to 75 million by 2030 without effective treatments, likely costing billions of dollars year.

Any effective treatment is likely to become one of the world's most lucrative drugs, but the Biogen drug faces years of testing and would not reach the market much before 2020, even if all goes well, analysts said.

It marks the first time an experimental drug demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in amyloid plaque as well as a slowing of clinical impairment in patients with mild disease, said Alfred Sandrock, Biogen's chief medical officer.

"It's a bigger treatment effect than we had hoped for," Sandrock said.

The trial of the Biogen drug, aducanumab, tested 166 people divided into five groups, four of which each received a different dose, and a fifth that received a placebo.

The Biogen treatment led to reductions in brain amyloid, according to interim data presented at a medical meeting in Nice, France, on Friday. The plaque reduction was more pronounced as the dose of the drug increased and over time.

Biogen will begin enrolling patients later this year for a large Phase III trial, whose results could be used to seek approval of its drug.

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