Home > Health Condition > Alzheimer's Disease > Aduhelm (aducanumab)

Aduhelm (aducanumab)

Related Topics:

• Alzheimer's / Reminyl® (Galantamine hydrobromide) / Seroquel® (quetiapine) / Aricept™ (donepezil hydrochloride) / Exelon (rivastigmine tartrate) / Axura (memantine) / Procaine HCl

News & Research:

• Aducanumab for Alzheimer's Gets Thumbs Down in Europe - Medscape, 12/17/21 - "The EMA committee noted that while aducanumab reduces amyloid beta in the brain, the link between this effect and clinical improvement had not been established ... The committee also felt that results of the main studies assessing the drug were "conflicting and did not show overall that Aduhelm was effective at treating adults with early stage Alzheimer's disease.""
• Potential new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease would be relatively cheap - 11/30/21 - "the researchers fed the model mice with diazoxide -- a drug that activates the KATP channel -- and tested their memory. They found that while the untreated Alzheimer's disease model mice exhibited their characteristically poor memory, the treated model mice performed just as well as normal mice. A look at the brains of the treated mice showed that they lacked the hallmark Aβ plaques ... Our findings point directly to a potential way of preventing and treating Alzheimer's disease ... On top of that, compared with Aβ-targeting immunotherapy, such as the drug aducanumab, which was recently approved by the FDA, synthetic agonists for the KATP channel are less expensive and would be more acceptable to aging societies around the world" - Note: Aduhelm (aducanumab) is the one that costs $56,000 per year and is the reason Medicare premiums went up.  It reduces the amyloid β peptide but doesn't seem to reduce Alzheimer's.  Diazoxide sounds like it's got side-effects that seniors don't want to mess with.
  • Diazoxide - Wiki - "Common side effects include high blood sugar, fluid retention, low blood platelets, a fast heart rate, increased hair growth, and nausea.[2] Other severe side effects include pulmonary hypertension and heart failure.[2] It is chemically similar to thiazide diuretics.[2] It works by decreasing insulin release from the pancreas and increasing glucose release by the liver."
• A new Alzheimer's drug brings hope, controversy - CBS Sunday Morning, 11/28/21
• Aduhelm, priced at $56,000 a year, is a key factor driving up Medicare premiums - CNN, 11/16/21