BrightFocus Lauds FDA Approval of New Alzheimer’s Drug

Agency Gives Conditional Approval to Drug Slowing Cognitive Decline

The following statement was issued today by Stacy Pagos Haller, President and CEO of BrightFocus Foundation:

BrightFocus, along with families impacted by Alzheimer’s disease across the nation and the world, welcomes the Food and Drug Administration’s decision allowing clinical use of aducanumab, to be marketed under the name Aduhelm, as a new drug to slow cognitive decline by removing from the brain amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s. The agency’s accelerated approval, while further testing takes place, can help continue to validate the drug’s efficacy in modifying the effects of this terrible disease.

Today’s news furthers the great hope we have for the future of Alzheimer’s research. There are currently at least 29 potential treatments in the late-stage, Phase III clinical trials. BrightFocus recently announced funding for 59 new Alzheimer’s research grants, a vast majority going to early-career scientists to jump-start their new and exciting research ideas.

In our fight to defeat Alzheimer’s, I have never been more hopeful of our ability to make Alzheimer’s a thing of the past.