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Without further ado, this is the Naked Scientists.

Hello, welcome to the Naked Scientists, the program that brings you the latest breakthroughs in science, technology, and medicine with me Chris Smith and...

With me James Titco. Coming up, a new Alzheimer's drugs show some promise in trials, but are

the risks from side effects worth it? A new contraceptive inspired by Roman history and shellfish,

and a surprising discovery about ants that scientists miss for over a century.

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As life expectancy rises, more people are living to an age when degenerative diseases

like Alzheimer's become a problem, and in recent decades the pharmaceutical sector has been

pursuing various approaches to try to slow down or halt the disease.

This week the Japanese company E-Sai announced the results from a phase 3 clinical trial on nearly 2,000 people in the early stages of Alzheimer's

comparing their new drug Lecanomab against a placebo. The drugs are modified

antibody that works like a sponge to soak up and reduce the buildup of a protein that's called

Beta Amyloid which accumulates and kills nerve cells in the brains of people who have

Alzheimer's.

In the trial, after 18 months on the drug, participants showed a 27% slower rate of progression

...