‘A mind shift for the dementia field’: Would you pay $40,000 to delay Alzheimer’s by five months?
Associate Professor Steve Macfarlane says the TGA’s approval of two monoclonal antibodies marks a paradigm shift.
The treatments are not curative, require monthly maintenance doses, will cost more than $40,000 over a year and carry a proven risk of brain swelling.
Yet geriatric psychiatrist Associate Professor Steve Macfarlane says the TGA’s approval of two monoclonal antibodies — donanemab and lecanemab — to treat Alzheimer’s disease marks a paradigm shift.
Their registration validates a concept that has divided the field for years: the amyloid hypothesis.Â
By clearing amyloid plaques from the brain before the disease takes hold, these biologics not only alter biomarkers but appear to change the trajectory of the disease itself.
