https://youtu.be/WIk8FPz-zCc
Chinese Alzheimer’s drug hits the market
Extracted from brown algae, medicine is first new treatment option in 17 years
A Chinese drug that
is the world’s first innovative therapy for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in 17 years became available domestically on Sunday.
Extracted from brown algae, GV-971 can treat mild to moderate forms of the disease and improve cognition, China’s National Medical Products Administration said.
It announced approval of the drug on Nov 2.
The drug provides new choices to patients with Alzheimer’s, and continued research will be conducted on its long-term effects and safety, the administration said.
Alzheimer’s disease, which mostly affects elderly people, is an incurable, irreversible and progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory, thinking ability and the capability to carry out simple tasks.
There are at least 50 million Alzheimer’s patients worldwide, including more than 10 million in China.
The numbers are expected to increase to 150 million worldwide and 40 million in China by 2050, which will impose great burdens on society.
Zhang Xiaodong, vice-president of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association,
said the drug is the only Alzheimer’s medicine out of a number of drugs developed by pharmaceutical companies around the globe to have survived clinical trials over the past two decades, despite the investment of hundreds of billions of US dollars.
http://www.ecns.cn/m/news/society/2019-12-30/detail-ifzscrpe6237627.shtml