Alzheimers Drug Lecanemab Hailed as Momentous Breakthrough in Treatment of Dementia

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.

 

I have outlined on another website just some of this evidence that doctors know that pharmaceutical drugs can cause these symptoms of dementia, alongside just some of the scientific studies that have demonstrated the link.
 

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................

 

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. A new wonder drug for dementia? What is the truth behind the media hype?

There is news today 23 October 2019) of a new wonder drug that can treat Alzheimer's disease. It's called aducanumab. It has hit the headlines in BBC News ('First drug that can slow Alzheimer's dementia'), the Times ('Alzheimer's drug suggests our research billions were not for naught'), the Telegraph ('New drug that halts mental decline is 'best news for dementia in 25 years'), and no doubt the rest of the mainstream media too. You do not need to read all these accounts as they are all virtually identical. The source material will undoubtedly be a press release by the drug company, Biogen, which is seeking regulatory approval in the USA for this 'groundbreaking" drug.

The news will encourage, and raise the expectations, of millions of people who suffer from, or have loved one's who suffer from, dementia. The pharmaceutical industry has done it again! It has come up with yet another wonder drug that will transform our health! Or so they are led to  believe.

The truth is rather more uncertain than the media coverage, who as usual have meekly accepted what the drug company has told them, without investigating any of the downsides. So what is the truth about aducanumab? What is known about it that we are not supposed to know?

• In March 2015, Biogen presented 'positive interim results' of a study.
• In March 2019, just four years later, Biogen discontinued all trials into the drug.

Why was this? We are told that an "independent data monitoring committee advises aducanumab unlikely to meet primary endpoints", although we were also told that "the recommendation to stop the studies was not based on safety concerns". So what was it based on? Presumably it was found not to be effective!

But what about the safety of aducanumab? Conventional medicine frequently dismisses any safety concerns that are known about drugs, both old and new. This is the warning statement about aducanumab on the Drugs.com website.

               "Patients treated with adalimumab are at increased risk of infection, some of which may become serious and lead to hospitalization or death. These infections have included TB, invasive fungal infections, bacterial, viral, and those caused by opportunistic pathogens including Legionella and Listeria." (my emphasis).

For conventional medicine (and the Drugs.com website is owned by pharmaeutical interests) such safety concerns do not warrant any more than a warning, however drastic that warning might be! And, of course, the trials abandoned in March 2019 had nothing to do with 'safety' concerns! Instead, doctors are advised to take care about how the drug is used.

               "The risks and benefits of therapy should be carefully considered prior to treatment initiation in patients with chronic or recurrent infection. Evaluate for latent TB and treat if necessary prior to initiating therapy. Monitor patients closely for signs and symptoms of infection during and after treatment, including the possible development of TB in patients who tested negative prior to treatment. Consider empirical antifungal therapy in at-risk patients who develop severe systemic illness. Lymphoma and other malignancies, some fatal, have been reported in pediatric and adolescent patients treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers such as adalimumab. Postmarketing cases of hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL), usually fatal, have been reported in patients treated with TNF blockers including adalimumab, primarily in adolescent and young adult males with Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis." (my emphasis).


Clearly, the concept of 'first do not harm", and the precautionary principle" do not apply to conventional medical practice.

Nor does it appear to be a concern for the mainstream media. I did not have to struggle to find this informaton. It is not hidden. Nor is it information that comes from anywhere else but conventional medical literature. But the mainstream media does not bother to inform us. And the drug companies are, as sure as hell, will not do so!

What guides the BBC, the Telegraph, the Times, et al., is what drug companies want us to know; not what we need to know about these 'wonder drugs' before we begin to consume them.

This is not unusual. Whenever we face an epidemic of chronic disease, such as dementia, but also allergy, arthritis, autism, diabetes, and so many more, the first questions asked by the conventional medical establishment is "how can we respond?" "What treatments (usually what drug) do we have to combat this epidemic?"

The first question that should be asked, both by doctors and patients, is - "what has caused this epidemic?" Why are the numbers of older people, and even young adults and children, now suffering from dementia increasing so rapidly?"

Unfortunately it is a question that conventional medicine, and the drug companies that controls it, do not want us to ask. The cause of these epidemic levels of chronic disease are pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines - at least in large measure. They are certainly known to cause dementia, and although doctors know this (it's in their medical literature) they certainly do not want us to know!

Asking such a question does not fit in with the business plan of the pharmaceutical industry, which is to treat illness with drugs that cause other illnesses through side effects, and then treat these illnesses with other drugs, which also cause side effects............. and so on.

So investigating the CAUSE of Alzheimer's is not part of conventional medical strategy. Finding new, and every more harmful (and profitable) drugs to treat it, most certainly is! And our mainstream media is complicit in this.

Postscript (7th June 2021)

This awful drug, Aducanumab, has raised its ugly head again. 18 months after this free advertising of a nasty drug the mainstream media is at it again.

 

"US approves first new Alzheimer's drug in 20 years" is the BBC's headline. It is good, free advertising, although this time the BBC does mention the "uncertainty" about the drug trial results; but of course this  is not reflected in the headline.

And it's more than just 'uncertainty'. Members of the FDA (the USA drug regulator) have resigned "amid backlash over controversial drug approval". Even members of the pharmaceutical medical establishment will take action to prevent patient harm by such an approval. Perhaps all is not well within conventional medicine!