New Alzheimer's drug prescribed

The first new treatment for Alzheimer's disease in two decades fully approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration was prescribed for the first time on the Chinese mainland at Shanghai Huashan Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University on Wednesday.

Experts said Lecanemab, which was approved in the US in January last year and in China this January, will provide more efficient and personalized treatment plans that are expected to benefit more people in the early phase of the disease.

The first batch of six patients aged between 55 and 75 and diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's at Huashan Hospital, which is home to the National Medical Center for Neurological Diseases, will receive an 18-month cycle of treatment with infusion of the drug twice a month.