An experimental dementia drug that targets beta-amyloid has shown potential for slowing cognitive decline in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, drug-makers say.

The agent, lecanemab, also reduced amyloid plaques after 18 months of treatment compared with placebo, international drug manufacturers Biogen and Eisai said in a joint media statement.

The phase III trial results follow controversy over another anti-amyloid drug, aducanumab — also marketed by Biogen — which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2021 despite an advisory panel declaring there was insufficient evidence of patient benefit.

And in March this year, results from two late-stage trials on aducanumab (Aduhelm) were published in a low-ranking medical journal whose editor-in-chief was a co-author of both papers.