Latest news with #DominicLipinski
Glasgow Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Glasgow Times
How do the new antibody drugs for Alzheimer's disease work?
– What are the medicines? Donanemab and lecanemab are targeted antibody drugs that slow down the early stages of Alzheimer's. They represent a huge step forward in research because they target a known cause of the disease, rather than just treating the symptoms. Both drugs bind to amyloid, a protein which builds up in the brains of people living with Alzheimer's disease. By binding to amyloid, the drugs are designed to help clear the build-up and slow down cognitive decline. – How effective are they? Donanemab has been shown in clinical trials to slow the rate at which memory and thinking get worse by more than 20%. Evidence suggests that people get the most benefit if they are given the treatment earlier in the disease. Results show a slowing in the decline of tasks such as managing money (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Results also suggest the drug leads to a 40% slowing in the decline of everyday activities such as driving, enjoying hobbies and managing money. Lecanemab has also been shown to successfully remove protein build-up from the brains of people living with early Alzheimer's disease. For people taking lecanemab, this meant the decline in their thinking and memory skills was slowed down by 27%. It also slowed down the decline in quality of life by up to 56%. – How are the drugs given? Donanemab, developed by the pharmaceutical company Lilly, is given to patients via an intravenous drip once every four weeks. Lecanemab, developed by Eisai, is also given this way but fortnightly. – Are there any side-effects? Side-effects of the drugs can be serious and people undergo monitoring to check for them. In one clinical trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2023, 24% of people receiving donanemab had side-effects including brain swelling and infusion-related reactions. Four people died during the trial, with their deaths thought to be related to the drug's side-effects. Results suggest donanemab leads to a 40% slowing in the decline of everyday activities (Peter Byrne/PA) Lecanemab resulted in infusion-related reactions in around 26% of people on the trial and followed up, while 14% suffered amyloid-related imaging abnormalities causing brain swelling. Others suffered minor bleeds picked up on scans. Around one in 10 people suffered headaches, according to updated results published in May 2024. Overall, four deaths during the follow-up period were thought to be due to treatment. – How much do the drugs cost? NHS England published a briefing paper last year suggesting the cost of bringing the drugs to the health service could be £500 million to £1 billion per year. Around 50%-60% of the total estimated cost relates to the drug price, with remaining cash spent on patient assessment, diagnosis and administering the treatment. – How many people in England might the drugs have worked for? NHS England estimated between 50,000 and 280,000 patients could be eligible for the new treatments if they were approved for the NHS. To get the drugs, patients need a baseline MRI scan and then either a PET-CT scan or lumbar puncture to confirm Alzheimer's. It is possible that blood tests will be available in the future to diagnose the disease, so NHS England did warn there should be caution about driving a 'massive expansion' in other diagnostics which could become redundant in the longer term. -What do scientists think? Scientists and doctors have been divided on whether the drugs represent a real clinical benefit that is noticeable in patients day-to-day. Some argue the drugs represent a huge advance and people should be given the chance to try them. But others say the benefits are too small. Jennifer Keen, associate director of evidence, policy and influencing at the Alzheimer's Society, has said: 'we remain at an important and exciting moment', adding: 'There are currently 182 active clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease… We are on the cusp of major scientific breakthroughs beginning to improve the outlook for those with the disease.' Professor Rob Howard, from University College London, said: 'Nobody should be surprised that Nice have confirmed their earlier view that the new Alzheimer's disease treatments would not be cost-effective if used within the NHS. 'Well-conducted clinical trials demonstrated that the actual size of benefits experienced by patients were too small to be noticeable, treatment carries risks of side-effects, and the annual cost of the drugs and safety monitoring required would have been close to the cost of a nurse's salary for each treated patient. We need better treatments that can make an appreciable difference to the lives of people with dementia and these can only come from further research and study.'
Western Telegraph
4 days ago
- Health
- Western Telegraph
How do the new antibody drugs for Alzheimer's disease work?
– What are the medicines? Donanemab and lecanemab are targeted antibody drugs that slow down the early stages of Alzheimer's. They represent a huge step forward in research because they target a known cause of the disease, rather than just treating the symptoms. Both drugs bind to amyloid, a protein which builds up in the brains of people living with Alzheimer's disease. By binding to amyloid, the drugs are designed to help clear the build-up and slow down cognitive decline. – How effective are they? Donanemab has been shown in clinical trials to slow the rate at which memory and thinking get worse by more than 20%. Evidence suggests that people get the most benefit if they are given the treatment earlier in the disease. Results show a slowing in the decline of tasks such as managing money (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Results also suggest the drug leads to a 40% slowing in the decline of everyday activities such as driving, enjoying hobbies and managing money. Lecanemab has also been shown to successfully remove protein build-up from the brains of people living with early Alzheimer's disease. For people taking lecanemab, this meant the decline in their thinking and memory skills was slowed down by 27%. It also slowed down the decline in quality of life by up to 56%. – How are the drugs given? Donanemab, developed by the pharmaceutical company Lilly, is given to patients via an intravenous drip once every four weeks. Lecanemab, developed by Eisai, is also given this way but fortnightly. – Are there any side-effects? Side-effects of the drugs can be serious and people undergo monitoring to check for them. In one clinical trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2023, 24% of people receiving donanemab had side-effects including brain swelling and infusion-related reactions. Four people died during the trial, with their deaths thought to be related to the drug's side-effects. Results suggest donanemab leads to a 40% slowing in the decline of everyday activities (Peter Byrne/PA) Lecanemab resulted in infusion-related reactions in around 26% of people on the trial and followed up, while 14% suffered amyloid-related imaging abnormalities causing brain swelling. Others suffered minor bleeds picked up on scans. Around one in 10 people suffered headaches, according to updated results published in May 2024. Overall, four deaths during the follow-up period were thought to be due to treatment. – How much do the drugs cost? NHS England published a briefing paper last year suggesting the cost of bringing the drugs to the health service could be £500 million to £1 billion per year. Around 50%-60% of the total estimated cost relates to the drug price, with remaining cash spent on patient assessment, diagnosis and administering the treatment. – How many people in England might the drugs have worked for? NHS England estimated between 50,000 and 280,000 patients could be eligible for the new treatments if they were approved for the NHS. To get the drugs, patients need a baseline MRI scan and then either a PET-CT scan or lumbar puncture to confirm Alzheimer's. It is possible that blood tests will be available in the future to diagnose the disease, so NHS England did warn there should be caution about driving a 'massive expansion' in other diagnostics which could become redundant in the longer term. -What do scientists think? Scientists and doctors have been divided on whether the drugs represent a real clinical benefit that is noticeable in patients day-to-day. Some argue the drugs represent a huge advance and people should be given the chance to try them. But others say the benefits are too small. Jennifer Keen, associate director of evidence, policy and influencing at the Alzheimer's Society, has said: 'we remain at an important and exciting moment', adding: 'There are currently 182 active clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease… We are on the cusp of major scientific breakthroughs beginning to improve the outlook for those with the disease.' Professor Rob Howard, from University College London, said: 'Nobody should be surprised that Nice have confirmed their earlier view that the new Alzheimer's disease treatments would not be cost-effective if used within the NHS. 'Well-conducted clinical trials demonstrated that the actual size of benefits experienced by patients were too small to be noticeable, treatment carries risks of side-effects, and the annual cost of the drugs and safety monitoring required would have been close to the cost of a nurse's salary for each treated patient. We need better treatments that can make an appreciable difference to the lives of people with dementia and these can only come from further research and study.'
Scotsman
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Plusnet full fibre broadband deals from £24.99 with £100 reward
It's always worth shopping around for the best broadband deals | Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement. Plusnet is shaking up the broadband market with a price drop, ultra-fast speeds and a £100 reward card – and it's beating Sky on price. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Plusnet has launched a major sale and is undercutting some of the industry's biggest broadband providers. It is offering Full Fibre broadband for £24.99. The deal is for the entry-level 74mb per second broadband speed and matches the £30 Sky charges for its Full Fibre 75 broadband offering. The best deals can be found at higher speeds. Plusnet is actually undercutting Sky when it comes to the ultra-fast 900mb per second Full Fibre broadband. The Plusnet option costs £37.99 compared to Sky's £42 per month offering. Householders who opt for the 900mbs option also get an extra perk from Plusnet; a pre-loaded £100 reward card that can be spent at a host of retailers. Plusnet also tops the charts for customer service and value for money according to energy switching company USwitch, which also gave it the award for overall Best Broadband Provider 2025 in a hat trick of rewards. It was also named Which?'s best provider in a double major award win. You can see the Plusnet deals here. It is a good time to shop for a new broadband provider as price wars have hit the market. While Plusnet and Sky have launched cheaper broadband offers, some brands are offering customers incentives to switch. BT and EE, which uses the BT network, are both offering up to £300 to people who switch to their service so that they can pay to cancel their current contract. EE says people who sign up will not need to cancel their existing contract because EE will do it for you when you sign up here. 🔥 Free Samsung tablet? Don't miss this Sky Mobile Galaxy S25 deal (aff) Snap up the brand-new Samsung Galaxy S25 5G and Sky Mobile will throw in a Galaxy Tab A9+ worth £259 – absolutely free! This offer - which we wrote about in detail here - runs until 26 June 2025, but once it's gone, it's gone. You'll get Samsung's most powerful phone yet – built for gaming, streaming and multitasking – from just £30 a month with zero upfront cost.
South Wales Argus
21-05-2025
- Business
- South Wales Argus
Why has inflation jumped higher and what does it mean for households?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation hit 3.5% in April, up from 2.6% in March and the highest since January 2024. Here, the PA news agency looks at what the latest inflation data means for households and the economy. – What is inflation? Inflation is the term used to describe the rising price of goods and services. The inflation rate refers to how quickly prices are going up. April's inflation rate of 3.5% means that if an item cost £100 a year ago, it would now cost £103.50. – Why did inflation rise by so much last month? The steep rise in inflation since March was the largest since October 2022, at the height of the energy crisis. Economists had expected inflation to increase sharply in April due to the so-called 'awful April' flurry of bill rises, although the increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was bigger than most had forecast. It comes after Ofgem's energy price cap rose by 6.4% in April, having fallen a year earlier, alongside a raft of bill rises for under-pressure households, including steep increases to water charges, council tax, road tax, mobile and broadband tariffs. Ofwat ruled that water firms could increase bills by an average of 20% (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Water bills soared after regulator Ofwat allowed firms to increase bills by an average of £86 or 20% for this year as part of its five-year agreement. Millions of households will also have seen a jump in their annual council tax bills from April 1, with most local authorities in England increasing a typical band D bill by 5%. But experts have also said inflation is likely to have also been pushed higher as many firms hiked prices in response to the Government's move to raise national insurance contributions (NICs) and the minimum wage last month. – How much of the rise in inflation is down to the leap in labour costs? The ONS data did not specifically reveal the impact of the NICs increase or separate it out from the other factors leading to the rise. But it is thought some of the general increase in prices was driven by the wage cost pressures, for example, with food and non-alcoholic drinks inflation rising to 3.4% last month – the highest since March 2024. Kris Hamer, director of insight at the British Retail Consortium, said: 'Rising inflation was inevitable following the wave of additional costs hitting employers and particularly retailers, who employ more than 3 million people across the country. 'For months, retailers have been warning that rising costs would lead to higher prices.' It's not yet clear what long-term effects US President Donald Trump's global trade tariffs will have on prices and the economy (Niall Carson/PA) – Will inflation keep rising? While painful for many, some economists believe that inflation may have peaked at 3.5%, although the path is far from clear. The Bank of England recently said CPI was on track to peak at 3.5%, but it did not see that happening until the third quarter of this year. It is unclear what impact US President Donald Trump's global trade tariffs will have on prices and the economy, or what will happen to UK wage growth, a key driver behind inflation. Pantheon Macroeconomics believes inflation will stay at around 3.5% for the rest of 2025 and not fall below 3% until April next year. Investec Economics expert Philip Shaw is more optimistic, as he believes wage growth and lower energy prices over the summer will bring CPI down. 'In addition, the punitive US tariffs levied on Chinese goods may help to lower UK price pressures further as manufacturers in China compete more aggressively to seek alternative export markets,' he said. – What does the it mean for interest rates? Typically, high interest rates are used as a method to drag on spending demand and therefore bring down inflation. The higher-than-forecast inflation figures may therefore see the Bank of England act more cautiously in cutting rates further, according to some experts. Having cut rates to 4.25% from 4.5% earlier this month, the Bank is now seen pausing further reductions until its next quarterly set of forecasts in August. Crucially, it will want to see services inflation come down after hitting 5.4% in April, as well as a further cooling off in wage growth. James Smith, an economist at ING, said services inflation was 'still too high for many of the Bank of England's rate-setters'. 'But we think an August cut is still highly likely, and the quarterly pace of rate cuts can continue through this year and into 2026.
Glasgow Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Why has inflation jumped higher and what does it mean for households?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation hit 3.5% in April, up from 2.6% in March and the highest since January 2024. Here, the PA news agency looks at what the latest inflation data means for households and the economy. – What is inflation? Inflation is the term used to describe the rising price of goods and services. The inflation rate refers to how quickly prices are going up. April's inflation rate of 3.5% means that if an item cost £100 a year ago, it would now cost £103.50. – Why did inflation rise by so much last month? The steep rise in inflation since March was the largest since October 2022, at the height of the energy crisis. Economists had expected inflation to increase sharply in April due to the so-called 'awful April' flurry of bill rises, although the increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was bigger than most had forecast. It comes after Ofgem's energy price cap rose by 6.4% in April, having fallen a year earlier, alongside a raft of bill rises for under-pressure households, including steep increases to water charges, council tax, road tax, mobile and broadband tariffs. Ofwat ruled that water firms could increase bills by an average of 20% (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Water bills soared after regulator Ofwat allowed firms to increase bills by an average of £86 or 20% for this year as part of its five-year agreement. Millions of households will also have seen a jump in their annual council tax bills from April 1, with most local authorities in England increasing a typical band D bill by 5%. But experts have also said inflation is likely to have also been pushed higher as many firms hiked prices in response to the Government's move to raise national insurance contributions (NICs) and the minimum wage last month. – How much of the rise in inflation is down to the leap in labour costs? The ONS data did not specifically reveal the impact of the NICs increase or separate it out from the other factors leading to the rise. But it is thought some of the general increase in prices was driven by the wage cost pressures, for example, with food and non-alcoholic drinks inflation rising to 3.4% last month – the highest since March 2024. Kris Hamer, director of insight at the British Retail Consortium, said: 'Rising inflation was inevitable following the wave of additional costs hitting employers and particularly retailers, who employ more than 3 million people across the country. 'For months, retailers have been warning that rising costs would lead to higher prices.' It's not yet clear what long-term effects US President Donald Trump's global trade tariffs will have on prices and the economy (Niall Carson/PA) – Will inflation keep rising? While painful for many, some economists believe that inflation may have peaked at 3.5%, although the path is far from clear. The Bank of England recently said CPI was on track to peak at 3.5%, but it did not see that happening until the third quarter of this year. It is unclear what impact US President Donald Trump's global trade tariffs will have on prices and the economy, or what will happen to UK wage growth, a key driver behind inflation. Pantheon Macroeconomics believes inflation will stay at around 3.5% for the rest of 2025 and not fall below 3% until April next year. Investec Economics expert Philip Shaw is more optimistic, as he believes wage growth and lower energy prices over the summer will bring CPI down. 'In addition, the punitive US tariffs levied on Chinese goods may help to lower UK price pressures further as manufacturers in China compete more aggressively to seek alternative export markets,' he said. – What does the it mean for interest rates? Typically, high interest rates are used as a method to drag on spending demand and therefore bring down inflation. The higher-than-forecast inflation figures may therefore see the Bank of England act more cautiously in cutting rates further, according to some experts. Having cut rates to 4.25% from 4.5% earlier this month, the Bank is now seen pausing further reductions until its next quarterly set of forecasts in August. Crucially, it will want to see services inflation come down after hitting 5.4% in April, as well as a further cooling off in wage growth. James Smith, an economist at ING, said services inflation was 'still too high for many of the Bank of England's rate-setters'. 'But we think an August cut is still highly likely, and the quarterly pace of rate cuts can continue through this year and into 2026.
