Lecanemab has been heralded as good news for a medical system that is rapidly breaking down, Alzheimer's disease at epidemic levels, and the NHS now in terminal decline?
Headlines in all the mainstream national media yesterday (30th November 2022) certainly suggests that it is. The Alzheimer's Society has described Lecanemab as "momentous".
Yet is it really "good news"? Let's look more closely into what we are being told.
1. Lecanemab slows down the destruction of the brain by up to one-quarter.
2. Lecanemab ends decades of failure in the development of effective drug treatment for Alzheimer's.
3. Lecanemab could be the first of many more, improved Alzheimer's therapies in the years to come.
Each of the media reports I have seen, including BBC News, the Guardian, the 'I', the Times, LBC, tell us the same thing. No doubt they have all read a pharmaceutical drug release, and have reported it to us without question or serious discussion. Each sought to tell us just how good this news is, trying their hardest to justify the optimism.
However, there are many reasons for caution about this "breakthrough" - if not for downright cynicism!
* Early Onset. Lecanemab, we are told, works only in the very early stages of Alzheimer's disease. It is acknowledged that it would have no effect on those with moderate to severe dementia. And of course it would have no effect on people suffering from other forms of dementia.
* Early Diagnosis. There is no current protocol/technique/procedure to diagnose Alzheimer's in its early stages. I have heard that only 2% of people with Alzheimer's are diagnosed at this state, so many people will have dementia long before it is diagnosed, and the drug is no longer any good.
* The future promise. As usual, the 'good' news about this drug are projected into the future. Lecanemab might be available to prescribe in 2024. And any new "improved" drugs deveoped from Lecanemab would extend this much further into the future.
* Beta Amyloid. Lecanemab is described as attacking the "sticky gunge", called beta amyloid, that builds up in the brains of those suffering with Alzheimer's disease. Yet there is growing evidence (not mentioned) that this 'sticky gunge' is not the cause Alzheimer's, but merely a symptom resulting from the disease.
* Delaying the Onset of the Disease. If, as promised, Lecanemab delays the progress of the disease by one-quarter we need to understand exactly what this means. If it takes someone 2 years to progress to 'moderate' or 'advanced' dementia, and drug will extend this period to just 2.5 years.
* Adverse Reactions. Mainstream media announcements of new 'miracle' drugs happen regularly (and rarely/never come to fruition). Rarely are we informed of serious side effects, even if they are known. With Lecanemab, however, we have already told that it is known to cause brain welling and bleeding. Even in the drug trial, alone, 7% of patients had to be withdrawn because of serious adverse reactions.
* Treatment. Apparently treatment is to be conducted by infusion every two weeks, in a hospital setting. This is at a time when when the NHS is under severe pressure, and the additional time and resources this will cause will only add to this. The NHS is already unable to cope with the levels of sickness and patient demands for health care.
* Expensive. We are also told that the drug will be "extremely expensive", thus adding to the rapidly growing costs of conventional medical treatment, and the parlous state of NHS finances.
No doubt worse will follow. As with all pharmaceutical drug trials, the benefits of Lecanemab will (i) likely have been exaggerated, (ii) the adverse reactions to the drug not be known, or they will be under-stated, or not studied. Lecamemab is unlikely to be any different!
Evidence of the failure of the NHS, dominated and controlled as it is by pharmaceutical medicine, is now clearly visible for anyone who wishes to see. Nobody needs to be told about the parlous state of the nation's health, after 80 years of conventional medical treatment. The NHS is falling down around us.
Yet the mainstream media, even at such a time, continues to pin it's hope on yet another pharmaceutical drug. This constitutes the victory of hope over experience! In terms of the ever-growing Alzheimer's / dementia epidemic, a genuine medical breakthrough would more likely happen if conventional medicine was able to identify what is causing an epidemic that has been getting progressively worse for at least the last 80 years!
This would be possible. Conventional medical literature is able to point us to where this breakthrough might come. It already knows that large numbers of pharmaceutical drugs can cause symptoms such as confusion, memory loss, amnesia, disorientation. These drug side effects are something that the conventional medical establishment are fully aware - but keeps absolutely silent about.
The problem with this evidence is that it is not welcome to the medical establishment, not least people who have been engaged in the business of prescribing these drugs. For doctors, and other medical practitioners, it is difficult to admit that their medical treatment, used increasingly over the last 80 years, might be a major cause of the dementia epidemic.
The conventional medical establishment would rather ignore the evidence - AND COME UP WITH YET ANOTHER DRUG TO COVER UP THE HARM CAUSED TO PATIENTS.
So Lecanemab is likely to be yet another dead-end drug. The 'wonder drug' will have little impact on the ever rising numbers of people who are suffering dementia. Nor will it provide any significant help to individual dementia patients. It may raise hopes and expectations. But ultimately it will dash them in a matter of a few years. If Lecanemab follows the same trajectory as other wonder drugs, when its side effects become fully known, it will be quietly dropped.
Remember - this is not the first time that new 'wonder' drugs have been advertised by conventional medicine, through the mainstream media. This link made similar claims for a drug called aducanumab!
And here is another from 2015 - a drug called solanezumab.
And there have been many more, like these, going back over a decade.
April 2007. "Scientists 'reverse' memory loss".
June 2008. "Dual action Alzhemer's drug hope".
July 2008. "Praise for new Alzheimer's drug".
July 2008. "Alzheimer's drug 'halts' decline.
May 2009. "Drug Trials 'reverse' Alzheimers".
Postscript
The fate of other, previously heralded "Wonder Drugs" for other illnesses.
Just a selection! Can you spot any that have actually worked?
Acomplia. What happens to all the 'Wonder Drugs' and 'Miracle Cures' of conventional medicine?
New Wonder Drug for Cancer (or is it really that good?)
Canakinumab. A New Wonder Drug! Promoted by the mainstream media
Multiple Sclerosis. Another miracle cure? Or another dangerous blind alley?
AND SO IT CONTINUES................
