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Comment by onepointsixC | Hacker News Reader

Which drug are you thinking of? Because the recent one that was approved was both highly controversial because the efficacy is extremely questionable[1] and the entire theory of disease is in question as well [2].

[1]: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/07/1003964235/fda-approves-contr... [2]: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/alzheimers-theo...

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They may be thinking of the one approved even more recently [0], of which I am unaware of any controversy.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/03/new-alzheime...

Yes, this too. This one though appears to have some side effects of brain swelling as mentioned in the article.

Though the one announced in 2021 made the headlines and appeared to be more of a success than it was. You could say a new drug being approved after 20 years is still a relative success (it does have some statistically significant results which led it to being approved).

The beta-amyloid debacle will persist as one of the most fatal mistake the scientific community, and a single individual's deceit created.

If you're referring to the (likely) falsified research of Sylvain Lesné, my understanding is that researchers universally agree that it was not central to the beta-amyloid hypothesis, and therefore didn't change much. The story appears to have been widely mischaracterized in the press, even by Science, who broke the story.

> and the entire theory of disease is in question as well [2].

The entire theory of Alzheimer's is not resting on that research. Nobody believes in amyloids exclusively because of it.

Yes these anti-amyloid drugs announced recently. I wasn't aware of the controversy. Hopefully, this period is the start of more fruitful discoveries.

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