Eli-Lilly's drug puts brakes on Alzheimer's

A major breakthrough has been announced by Eli-Lilly in the fight against Alzheimer's . A trial of the pharma giant's drug solanezumab has shown a slowing down of the disease for patients in the early onset stages.

This is the first time a drug has been shown to tackle the disease itself as oppose to the symptoms. The trial involved 1,322 early stage Alzheimer's patients and lasted three and a half years; the mental decline of those patients on solanezumab in comparison with patients given the placebo. Professor of neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh Richard Morris labelled the trial as "significant" owing to the fact that it had been proven in "patients" rather than "mice".

Alzheimer's is caused by sticky amyloid plaques forming in the brain and preventing neurons from communicating. Solanezumab binds to these plaques in their early soluble form, allowing them to be cleared by the body before they harden and become destructive.

The drug had originally been intended for latter-stage Alzheimer's patients but proved to be ineffective. Proof of its positive effect in patients suffering mild symptoms is however a landmark development, particularly as there are tests in the pipeline that aim to diagnose the disease up to 10 years prior to the occurrence of any symptoms. The hope is that treatment with Solanezumab could begin as early as this and prevent the plaques from forming at all.

Although trials are continuing, Solanezumab could be available as early as 2018 if approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).