A treatment for Alzheimer's could be available by 2025, a researcher announced ahead of a lecture at the Royal Society in London. Professor John Hardy, an Alzheimer's expert from University College London, said the ongoing trials are showing promise. The results of these trials will be released in the coming months.
"I think we are on target for some therapies for 2025," said Hardy, according to the Daily Mail. "When the drug trial results come out - and if they're positive - we will know we are on the right road.... In the coming year, we will know if we are already at the start of a new era of better treatments for slowing or stopping the development of Alzheimer's disease."
Last year, a treatment from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly tested a drug called solanezumab, and the trial results showed it was able to delay the mental decline in patients with mild Alzheimer's by about 30 percent. The trial results were announced at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference held this past July in Canada.
While previous drugs tested for Alzheimer's merely addressed its symptoms, solanezumab was the first to attempt treating the disease by clearing the buildup of amyloid plaques, which has been associated with its progression. Delaying the progression of Alzheimer's by just five years could cut the disease's mortality rate by half, said researchers.
In the future, people who are at risk of dementia could be given drugs to prevent the disease, just like the way statins are given to prevent stroke or heart attack in high risk patients.
"We're not at the stage yet where we have a drug like a statin. The kind of drugs we're talking about at the moment would be very expensive infusions," Dr. Simon Ridley from Alzheimer's Research U.K. told the Telegraph. "But, ultimately, you could think of it in those terms. If we have identified people at risk that's a reasonable assumption."
