CLEVELAND — Debra and Jerry Fair are high school sweethearts. We lived together for nearly 50 years and got married at 45.

Jerry, 62, was looking forward to retirement as he never thought illness would derail his plans.

“He came home from work and told me about forgetting things at work,” recalls Debra.

“Just stand there and say, ‘What should I do next?’ said Jerry.

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Memory issues forced Jerry to quit his job, and in 2019, he found out why. Alzheimer’s disease.

“When you hear that diagnosis, you quickly realize that your retirement year probably won’t go as well as you expected and planned,” said Debra.

They found a glimmer of hope in a clinical trial of an experimental drug called lecanemab.

“I wanted to be on trial,” he said.

Jerry wasn’t sure early on whether he was taking the actual medication or a placebo during his biweekly IV appointment. It works by reducing abnormal masses of beta-amyloid plaques on the brain.

Preliminary results of lecanemab showed it slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27%.

“But the medicated group declined more slowly, which means you’ll have better days and days to maintain your independence,” said Dr. Babak Tusi of the Lou Lubo Center for Brain Health at the Cleveland Clinic. can be interpreted.

“My suspicion is that he was on medication all along,” Debra added.

Eight months ago, Jerry started getting real medicine. He can still drive, but he chooses not to. He and Debra compete to keep their minds focused using trivia and word game apps, while giant Bernese his Mountain and his dog Baxter must grab Jerry’s attention.

While they appreciate the good times, Jerry, now 66, worries about the future and his high school sweetheart.

“The biggest thing for me is forgetting Debbie,” he said, holding back tears.

“We know what’s going to happen, but it’s no use thinking about what’s going to happen,” Debra explained. “We have to really focus on what we have now.”

Jerry saw her smile and said, “Why are you ruining today by thinking about tomorrow?”

So far, one death has been reported in the Lecanemab trial. The patient had bleeding and a swollen brain, and investigations are still underway as to whether drugs were involved in the death. The patient was taking blood thinners and had several other health problems. However, there is no drug without risks.

Dr. Toshi says. Lecanemab makers Eisia and Biogen have applied for accelerated approval from the FDA. The FDA has a January 6 deadline for a decision, and if approved, both companies will seek full approval. If they get it, the drug could be available to people with early-onset Alzheimer’s by the end of next year. is required.

Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials conference will be held in San Francisco on November 29, where you can learn more about other drugs in trials. Tousi expects at least three of her promising new drugs in the next few years.

But today I learned that another experimental drug from Genentech/Roche called Gantenerumab failed to slow cognitive decline in a clinical trial.