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An experimental medicine appeared to slow the decline of patients with the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly, said. The results are likely to generate both excitement and debate in the Alzheimer’s field, because the study is small — enrolling just 272 patients — and because the medicine, donanemab, is the latest in a line of similar drugs that all target the same basic chemical mechanism, known as beta amyloid. (Herper, 1/11)

The study did not show that the drug stopped Alzheimer's or cured it. But if successful, the trial showed that donanemab could at least slow the progression of the disease. Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly's chief scientific officer, said in a statement the trial shows donanemab has the potential to provide high levels of plaque clearance even after a limited duration dosing. (Weixel, 1/11)

If accurate, it is the first time a positive result has been found in a so-called Phase 2 study, said Dr. Lon S. Schneider, professor of psychiatry, neurology and gerontology at the University of Southern California. ...Participants who received the drug had a 32 percent deceleration in the rate of decline, compared with those who got a placebo. In six to 12 months, plaques were gone and stayed gone, said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, the company’s chief scientific officer. At that point, patients stopped getting the drug — they got a placebo instead — for the duration of the study. (Kolata, 1/11)

Biogen added more than $4 billion in market value on Monday after a rival Alzheimer’s disease treatment from Eli Lilly showed promise in a small clinical trial. The preliminary benefit of Lilly’s treatment, which works similarly to Biogen’s controversial aducanumab, “adds momentum and belief” to the idea that targeting a toxic brain plaque called amyloid can slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s, Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. (Garde, 1/11)