Israeli firm set to begin clinical trials for 'groundbreaking' Alzheimer drug

An Israeli biopharmaceutical company is set to begin clinical trials for a new drug hailed as a groundbreaking potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

Michal Schwartz, a professor of neuroimmunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science as well as founder and chief scientific officer at ImmunoBrain Checkpoint (IBC), said that her team is the first to discover the brain needs the immune system for its protection and repair.

“The approach is revolutionary in the sense that Alzheimer’s and any kind of dementia were considered for decades as diseases of the brain," she said.

The company's antibody treatment, correlating the brain with the immune system, comes with extremely thorough research.

Several years ago, movements across the world began to spread awareness and raise money for research of the nervous system disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) as well as for Alzheimer's disease.

“I’ve been working on understanding the connection of the brain and the immune system for 22 years,” Schwartz said. “So it's not a therapy that was developed by serendipity or trial-and-error.”

Further development is expected to continue soon, with clinical trials set to begin in 2022 aimed at modifying the course of Alzheimer’s and preventing its progression.

The trials will take place in eight different centers: two in the Netherlands' capital Amsterdam, two in the United Kingdom, and four in Israel.

Alzheimer’s affects around 50 million people worldwide - five million people in the United States alone, and about 150,000 people in Israel.

“Our science has been very influential worldwide,” Schwartz said, adding that she hopes to allow patients to continue their lives without “further loss of cognitive ability.”

“[Their research] set the stage for so many studies worldwide that have never been considered before.”