Different results for men and women

Larrytherunner

Popular media has been promoting the lecanemab (Leqembi) clinical trial as slowing the cognitive decline by 27 percent, which is not much of a benefit, but it is presented as significant. What you don't see in most of these news articles is that there was a big difference in results in the latest lecanemab trial between men and women participants. The cognitive decline in men was slowed by 43 percent compared to 12 percent in women. That sounds like a big difference to me.

Leqembi's maker Eisai is promoting the 27 percent number while avoiding mentioning the differences between men and women. When questioned, they are saying that the differences are not statistically significant. They say that the trial was not set up to compare differences between the sexes. This sounds dishonest. I would like to ask, why wasn't it set set up to measure the differences between the sexes. It sounds important to me to let men and women have an idea of their chance of getting some kind of benefit from this drug.

The reason is that they already knew from previous research on amyloid monoclonal antibodies that women would not benefit as much as men. From a marketing point of view, they will make less money selling a treatment that is seen as significantly less effective for women, especially given that almost two thirds of Americans living with Alzheimers are female. It is just better marketing to promote an overall 27 percent less decline than talk about any differences. Monoclonal antibodies therapies trialed so far for Alzheimers just have not proved to provide a significant benefit.

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/11/leqembi-azheimers-drug-women-men-efficacy

https://theconversation.com/new-alzheimers-drugs-dont-deserve-the-hype-heres-why-211842

Pat6177

Wow! Thanks for the info Larry. What disappoints me more than anything is that Alzheimer’s Association is presenting this as such a great drug. Think of all the women that will take the drug, have no benefit from it and very possibly have brain bleeds.

ThisLife

I found the second article had a lot of points that have been glossed over. My H with AD did clinical trials from 2015 - 2021. They were to remove amyloid and one for Tau tangles. One had a risk of brain swelling or bleeds. I no longer have the paperwork, so I don't know which drugs. He had no side effects. Don't know if he benefitted, but we've been on this journey 10 years. Maybe we had some extra time with the angry man with anosognosia. Not a good time, and he has not been happy.

It's disappointing that the current outcome is a modest delay in symptoms for a brief time.

Ed1937

Thank you, Larry. That kind of information should be easily available. But when there's money to be made........

Jo C.

Boggles the mind that gender, which makes a difference due to biological differences, was not a factor in the trials. However; that has been a problem in drug trials for quite some time. I recall that with many meds, the subjects were all male. This was found later to be an issue with blood pressure meds as well as cardiac meds and it had a significant impact in the reality when prescribing as to impact and results.

That really is a stunning report; thank you for updating us.

J.