A Pill for Dementia?

An opinion article by Jan Steyaert – Senior Member of INTERDEM and Co-lead of the INTERDEM Prevention Taskforce 1

“Despite INTERDEM’s primary focus on psychosocial research, this is undeniably a breakthrough achievement in the broader field of dementia care and treatment. It represents a significant scientific milestone and offers renewed hope that progress in drug development may accelerate in the coming years.

In mid-April 2025, the European Commission gave approval to the drug Leqembi (the commercial name of lecanemab), following earlier approval by the European Medicines Agency. Leqembi reduces amyloid contamination in the brain to slow the progression of dementia. This marks an important step forward in the search for drugs to treat dementia.

So, will we soon have a pill for dementia? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple – for several reasons.

Leqembi is not a pill, but a drug that must be administered via infusion every two weeks. It also requires regular MRI scans. This, on top of the price of the drug itself, makes the treatment quite expensive. Moreover, this is a drug specifically for Alzheimer’s disease, not for other forms of dementia. It would also only be suitable for around 10% to 15% of people with this disease. It slows the disease’s progression, but it is not a cure. So far, the effect is (for now?) modest, and there is a risk of side effects such as brain swelling and bleeding.

For this reason, in the UK, the social security system declined to reimburse the drug, arguing that the limited benefits did not outweigh the potential risks. Whether other member states will choose to reimburse the drug remains to be seen.

So, while there are many questions surrounding the authorisation of Leqembi, this development may well inject new energy into the global effort to find effective interventions for dementia.”

  1. While INTERDEM’s core mission focuses on psychosocial research and care, we recognise the importance of developments across the wider dementia field. The approval of Leqembi represents a significant scientific milestone that may help accelerate further progress in the search for effective treatments. ↩︎