Hope Rises As More Alzheimer’s Drugs Enter Clinical Trials

There are more potential new medicines being tested for Alzheimer’s disease, according to an annual review published today, which reports that 138 drugs are currently being tested – an increase of nearly 9% from last year.

Drugs that could potentially help people in all stages of Alzheimer’s are being tested, from those in people showing no symptoms to those in later stages and with severe disease.

Experts are hopeful that the wide range of drugs now being tested will lead to safer and more effective medicines. This builds on recent progress with lecanemab and donanemab, which are the first treatments to slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s.

Further advances in drug development could lead to new treatment approaches – such as oral therapies or injections – that could be taken at home rather than in hospital, making treatment less disruptive for people and families living with dementia.

“This latest report shows us that there is hope on the horizon for people with Alzheimer’s after lecanemab and donanemab,” says Dr Sheona Scales, Director of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK. “But we must go further as progress is not fast enough for the millions of people affected by dementia in the UK who have no treatments to stop this heart-breaking condition.”

The number of drugs entering early-stage clinical trials has jumped from 27 last year to 48 this year. These are looking at a wide range of approaches, including vaccines and engineered immune cells.

Most of the drugs target the underlying disease and are designed to slow the decline of memory loss rather than just treat the symptoms. This could ultimately help people to live independently for longer.

“There are more diverse experimental medicines than ever in the current pipeline targeting different processes,” says Prof Emma Mead, Chief Scientific Officer at the Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute. “There’s an incredible range of drugs being tested to treat Alzheimer’s across the world, and I am hopeful we have the building blocks for a future where there will be a cure for this devastating disease.”
There are currently 182 clinical trials globally. Of these, over 40 are middle and late-stage trials that could publish their results this year. These include medicines that are already approved to treat other conditions and which are now being tested for Alzheimer’s.

One large trial is testing a pill form of semaglutide as a potential treatment for people with early Alzheimer’s. This drug is currently being used as an injection to manage type 2 diabetes and help with weight loss. Early research suggests that semaglutide could reduce inflammation in the brain, which can cause a cascade of damage that leads to Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

One of the major barriers to progress in developing new drugs is recruitment onto trials: globally more than 50,000 people are needed to populate all the current Alzheimer’s trials.

“Compared with the rest of the world, the UK is way behind in the delivery of clinical trials, meaning people here are missing out on potentially life-changing treatments,” says Dr Scales.

In the UK, it is estimated that over 10,000 more people could benefit from participating in clinical trials for dementia, if the UK enrolled people onto trials at a comparable rate to the rest of the world.

“Diagnosing people within the NHS needs to be faster and more accurate so we can match people with Alzheimer’s to the right trials where they can benefit from the latest treatments being tested.”