Was ‘miracle’ drug simply a false dawn in the war on Alzheimer’s?

It was hailed as the holy grail of dementia treatment. But as American health chiefs who approved it face accusations of being in the pockets of medical giants...

IT IS, without doubt, a story of hope. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at just 54, Phil Gutis was facing a bleak prognosis that will be all too familiar to many – the whittling away of memories, the loss of speech then movement, and ultimately an early death.

But enrolled on a clinical trial for a new dementia drug and something almost inconceivable occurred – ‘The fog began to lift,’ says the retired journalist.

Despite the fact that dementia is universally accepted to be incurable and always progressive, the treatment – a monthly injection of the medication aducanumab – has not simply slowed Phil’s illness, or held it at bay, as was initially