Daily Alzheimer’s pill slows brain shrinkage, boosts cognition

The benefits seen in people with early Alzheimer’s disease after a year of treatment with blarcamesine (Anavex 2-73) were sustained over nearly three years, according to new analysis from the treatment’s developer, Anavex Life Sciences.

Patients treated with the investigational oral medication in a Phase 2b/3 study had less loss of brain volume, a marker of neurodegeneration, along with improvements in measures of cognition, daily function, and disease severity, one-year data showed.

A new analysis from that trial and its long-term extension showed that those trends continued, and patients also experienced slower disease progression over three years. The results were presented in an oral session titled, “Advancing Alzheimer’s Disease Care: Convenience for Both Patients and Families with Oral Blarcamesine with Long-term Time Saved,” at the 2026 International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, held March 17–21 in Copenhagen and online.

“These results indicate that blarcamesine’s clinical effects are biologically coherent with MRI‑based measures of neuroprotection,” Christopher U. Missling, PhD, president and CEO of Anavex, said in a company press release. “The consistent relation between structural preservation of brain volume and functional outcomes further drives our dedication to developing a novel disease-modifying Alzheimer’s treatment with our oral blarcamesine.”