Scientists find first drug that appears to slow Alzheimer's disease

Solanezumab blocks memory loss in patients with mild version of the disease, making it the first medicine ever to slow pace of damage to patients' brains

Scientists appear to have broken a decades-long deadlock in the battle against Alzheimer's disease after announcing trial results for the first drug that appears to slow the pace of mental decline.

The drug, called solanezumab, was shown to stave off memory loss in patients with mild Alzheimer's over the course of several years. The effects would have been barely discernible to patients or their families, scientists said, and it is no cure. But the wider implications of the results have been hailed as "hugely significant" because it is the first time any medicine has slowed the rate at which the disease damages the brain.