LONDON—The results of a key Alzheimer’s drug trial on Wednesday have reignited decades-old hopes that targeting a particular protein helps arrest the progression of the fatal brain disease, giving a big boost to similar studies being run by Roche and Eli Lilly.
Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc said their experimental drug significantly slowed cognitive and functional decline in a large trial of patients in the early stages of the disease, a rare positive outcome in a field littered with failure.
The drug, lecanemab, slowed progress of the brain-wasting disease by 27 percent compared with a placebo, offering the promise of an effective treatment to desperate patients and their families….