Lil­ly’s Alzheimer’s drug do­nanemab slows cog­ni­tive de­cline by 35% in PhI­II, set­ting up show­down with Ei­sai’s Leqem­bi

At long last, Eli Lil­ly has found suc­cess in its decades-long ef­fort to de­vel­op a treat­ment for Alzheimer’s dis­ease.

The com­pa­ny an­nounced Wednes­day morn­ing that its ex­per­i­men­tal drug, do­nanemab, slowed a key mea­sure of cog­ni­tive and func­tion­al de­cline by 35% over 18 months in a sub­set of pa­tients with ear­ly Alzheimer’s dis­ease.

The high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed Phase III study, known as TRAIL­BLAZ­ER-ALZ 2, al­so suc­ceed­ed on all its pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary end­points, buck­ing a long se­ries of failed Alzheimer’s stud­ies from Lil­ly and oth­ers. The com­pa­ny said it plans to sub­mit the drug to the FDA “as quick­ly as pos­si­ble” this quar­ter.

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