Featured UK headline analysis

New Alzheimer’s drug can stop symptoms for three years

18 July 2012

Widespread media coverage tells us today of a new drug that ‘halts’ Alzheimer’s symptoms ‘for three years’. The news is based on a press release issued yesterday that highlighted positive early results of research into the use of intravenous immunoglobulin to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a medication made by harvesting antibodies from donated blood. It is currently used to treat severe forms of infection and a number of autoimmune conditions (where the immune system attacks healthy tissue). The idea behind using IVIG to treat Alzheimer’s disease is that it could encourage the immune system to ‘attack’ abnormal clumps of protein (amyloid plaques) that can develop...more