“The grim veil has been lift­ed.” Ex­cite­ment, and ques­tions, mount over Lil­ly’s pos­i­tive Alzheimer’s drug da­ta

Doc­tors, in­vestors, and pa­tient ad­vo­ca­cy groups breathed a col­lec­tive sigh of re­lief Wednes­day morn­ing af­ter Eli Lil­ly broke its los­ing streak in its decades-long en­deav­or to treat Alzheimer’s dis­ease.

The drug worked, and it looks com­pa­ra­ble – and pos­si­bly com­pet­i­tive – to Leqem­bi, a sim­i­lar ther­a­py ap­proved for treat­ing the mem­o­ry-rob­bing con­di­tion ear­li­er this year.

“My first re­ac­tion was ‘phew.’ This is a great con­fir­ma­tion of da­ta we saw from Leqem­bi,” Reisa Sper­ling, di­rec­tor of the Cen­ter for Alzheimer Re­search and Treat­ment at Brigham and Women’s Hos­pi­tal in Boston, said in an in­ter­view with End­points News. “We’re on the right track.”

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