Is new Roche Holding AG Alzheimer's drug winning the race?

The race is on to develop a drug that can catch Alzheimer's disease in the early stages and Roche Holding AG believes it is coming up trumps.

According to the Swiss drug company, clinical trials of gantenerumab in patients that have yet to develop dementia are going well, in contrast to the recent setbacks experienced by its competitors.

Luca Santarelli, Roche's head of neuroscience, told Reuters: "The playing field has changed dramatically and gantenerumab is now the most advanced monoclonal antibody in early Alzheimer's and the next big news to read out in this space."

Nevertheless, the success of any drug will depend on the ability to identify those at risk, as experts believe that once patient's show signs of Alzheimer's the damage to the brain is irreversible.

This will pose a challenge for doctors and further research will be needed into early indicators of the disease and biomarkers.

If the findings of a recent study are confirmed, sleep may be one such sign. Scientists observed that prior to the appearance of symptoms, those that develop Alzheimer's experience disrupted sleep patterns.

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