Another hope committed to the fight against Alzheimer’s disease? The answer is more complex. Leqembi, a treatment approved in 2023 in the United States, which is supposed to slow down the progress of this neurodegenerative disease in its first phase, is responsible for the death of at least seven people.
It is the American Media Bloomberg, citing data from the health authorities, which reveals these seven deaths, and adds that three other patients are disabled for life, the monitoring of the undesirable effects of the Leqembi.
The identified cases suffered, “specifically of cerebral edema or hemorrhage, side effects of the Leqembi that caused controversy at the time of authorization of the medication,” writes the title of the press.
A highly anticipated product, soon authorized in Europe?
This treatment has important hopes in the world. “The drug can stop the disease in its early phase, when the person still has good cognitive abilities. Raliones the development of the disease but cannot repair the destroyed neurons,” says Professor Philippe Amouyel, general director of the Alzheimer’s Foundation.
“The French and Europeans expect many of these innovative treatments,” confirms Kevin Rabiant, head of the Studies and Research Service of the France-Alzheimer Association.
This disease cannot be treated today, despite years of research and a global research effort. This disease that develops at low noise and destroys the brain of the patient slowly, gradually degrading all its intellectual abilities.
“In France, more than one million people have the disease, including twice as women as men,” is the Institut Pasteur. 225,000 new cases are identified each year.
“It should be less likely to reach Europe”
In fact, Leqembi is not yet available in France. The French agency for the safety of medicines specifies in BFMTV.com “wait for the decision of the European Commission”, which must give its green light after a positive opinion of the special committee in charge of drugs for human use.
This opinion, issued last February, was followed by a derivation to this decision of the European Commission, for an administrative element, as explained by the Bioártic Laboratory on April 1.
These turns are not the first. At the beginning of his trip, Leqembi had suffered a first rejection of the European authorities, due to the side effects it causes. These are exacerbated in some people who carry a specific gene (homozygous apoe4 or take anticoagulant medications. However, some cases resulted in deaths in the United States fell into these categories.
In the marketing authorization market he currently led to the EU, the Leqembi could not prescribe to these populations much more likely to develop serious side effects. “The US administration is much more tender in its authorization process than Europeans. This type of case could not happen in Europe,” says the member of France-Alzheimer.
“It is less likely that these situations arrive in Europe. Contraindications are much stricter,” says Philippe Amouyel.
In France, if the medicine finally reached pharmacies after this long process, the greatest risk of developing unwanted disorders will not have access to it. But even without an aggravating factor, “we must not minimize the risks of treatment,” Mate Kevin Rabiant, who considers that an alarmist posture should not be adopted.
Source: BFM TV
