Endpoints: Eisai says Alzheimer's drug keeps working after three years. But weaknesses in study raise questions

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Eisai says Alzheimer's drug keeps working after three years. But weaknesses in study raise questions
by Ryan Cross
PHILADELPHIA — Ever since Eisai first revealed data from its pivotal Alzheimer’s disease study two years ago, the company has argued that treating patients with Leqembi earlier and longer would likely lead to more dramatic effects.
Now, the company claims it has new data to back that hypothesis. But the results unveiled Tuesday also raise questions about how the data in the study were analyzed, and if the results are really as strong as Eisai appears to be saying they are.
In a long-term follow-up of patients who got Leqembi for three years, Eisai said the drug kept working and maintained a similar slowing of cognitive decline as in its original 18-month study that was the basis of the drug's approval by the FDA last year. And in a small sub-study of 41 patients in the earliest stages of the disease, Eisai said that half of them actually improved, rather than declined.
 

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