Switzerland's Bitter-Sweet News For Alzheimer's Patients

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Swiss medicines regulator Swissmedic was expected to approve two drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. But in late January it only approved one, leaving patients in Switzerland with fewer treatment options than in many countries. What happened? This content was published on February 27, 2026 - 09:00 10 minutes

I report on the Swiss pharmaceutical industry and healthcare topics such as access to medicine, biomedical innovation, and the impact of diseases like cancer. I grew up just outside San Francisco and studied international affairs with a focus on development economics and healthcare policy. Prior to joining SWI swissinfo in 2018, I was a freelance journalist and a researcher on business and human rights.

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For two and a half years, doctors in Switzerland have been eagerly awaiting a decision from Swissmedic on two new drugs for early-stage Alzheimer’s disease – Leqembi (lecanemab) and Kisunla (donanemab).

These are the first drugs to slow cognitive decline and address one potential underlying cause of the disease – amyloid plaques in the brain. Leqembi garnered more media attention as it was approved by the US regulator in July 2023 – a year before Kisunla.

Since then, more than 50 countriesExternal link have approved it. Both drugs were submitted to Swissmedic for approval within six months of each other in 2023.

News finally arrived in early February that Swissmedic had authorised Kisunla, Eli Lilly’s treatment for early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, on January 22, 2026. As for Leqembi, the Japanese manufacturer Eisai withdrew its application for authorisation on January 29, according to the Swissmedic journalExternal link.

“The approval of Kisunla is positive news. At least one of the US-approved treatments is coming to Switzerland,” Bogdan Draganski, a clinical neuroscientist who heads the Memory Clinic at Bern’s largest hospital, Inselspital, told Swissinfo.“But of course it would have been nice to have both treatments. The more choice the better.”

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Alzheimer’s afflictsExternal link some 32 million people worldwide. With population ageing, the number is expected to triple by 2050. It is estimated that about 161,000 peopleExternal link are living with dementia in Switzerland, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common form, accounting for 60-70% of cases.

Why Eisai took the drastic decision to pull Leqembi’s approval application isn’t entirely clear nor what it means for patients. In an email to Swissinfo, a company spokesperson explained that it didn’t agree with the“restrictive” conditions under which the regulator was willing to grant authorisation, which would have led to a“substantially smaller eligible patient population in Switzerland” than in the rest of Europe.

“After careful consideration,” wrote a spokesperson,“withdrawal of the application was the only feasible path forward under these conditions”.

The disappointing outcome for doctors and patients in Switzerland underscores the difficult choice facing regulators when assessing the latest Alzheimer’s treatments.

Both Leqembi and Kisunla are widely seen as breakthroughs in a field that has struggled to produce any new treatments in decades, despite billions in investment. Both drugs have shown to slow cognitive decline and clear amyloid plaques in the brain. But they aren’t cures and come with serious potential side effects.

Weighing the benefits and risks

The heart of the disagreement between Eisai and Swissmedic appears to be how they view Leqembi’s benefits and risks in specific patient populations. Regulators approve drugs by evaluating if clinical trial data demonstrates that a drug’s benefits outweigh its risks for the intended population.

Experts widely agree that both drugs offer modest benefits. In the pivotal clinical trialExternal link published in 2023, Leqembi slowed cognitive decline in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease by 27% compared with a placebo. Kisunla slowed cognitive decline by up to 35% in its key clinical trial. According to some expertsExternal link, this could keep dementia at bay for only 4-8 months.

Both drugs also carry risks of amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) – a life-threatening form of brain swelling and bleeding. Kisunla had a higher reported ARIA incidence compared to Leqembi in clinical trials. However, the benefits and risks are difficult to compare because of different trial designs.

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In both cases, people who carry the APOE4 gene variant – the strongest knownExternal link genetic risk factor for late-stage Alzheimer’s – are at increased risk of ARIA. People with two copies of the gene are at a higher risk than people with one copy.

According to Eisai, Swissmedic’s assessment concluded Leqembi should only be approved for people who don’t carry any copies of the APOE4 gene variant. This is more restrictive than in Europe where the regulator approved it for patients with one or no copy of the gene variant.

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