Alzheimer’s Drug Slows Disease Progression in Trial

Eisai Co. and Biogen Inc. said their experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug significantly slowed progression of the memory-robbing disease in a large study, bolstering the drug’s prospects for approval.

The pharmaceutical companies said their drug lecanemab reduced cognitive and functional decline by 27%, compared with a placebo, over 18 months in a Phase 3 study of 1,800 patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s. The drug was also linked to higher rates of brain swelling and small bleeds, though the company said they were rarely symptomatic.