UK on verge of new dawn for dementia treatments, says taskforce chair

Hilary Evans, co-chair of dementia mission, compared new drugs such as lecanemab to the earliest cancer and HIV treatments. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Today’s generation of elderly people could be the last to face the spectre of untreatable Alzheimer’s disease, according to the co-chair of the government’s new dementia mission.

Hilary Evans, the chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, appointed by ministers last month, said the world was “on the cusp of a new dawn” for dementia treatments that meant devastating neurodegenerative illness would no longer be regarded as an inevitable part of old age.