Year-ender: Historical human breakthroughs in 2019

Editor's Note: With 2019 nearly coming to an end, everyone must have experienced a lot and have a number of feelings about this eventful year. The year 2019 witnessed many exciting and inspiring historical human breakthroughs, whether the breakthrough is related to remote space or healthcare, the achievements will benefit the world and help us know ourselves better.

Healthcare

New medicine gives Alzheimer’s patients hope

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disorder that causes brain cells to waste away and die. There are only five medicines that can be used for clinical treatment since it was discovered about 100 years ago, and about 320 medicines have been failed to treat the disease in the past over 20 years.

The number of Alzheimer's patients in China is about 10 million, which is the largest in the world and is projected to surpass 30 million in 2050. More and more people are suffering from Alzheimer’s since there have been no breakthrough in recent years. The good news is, the National Medical Products Administration of China approved a new medicine co-developed by several Chinese teams for Alzheimer's patients on Nov 2.

For a long time, the main treatments for early stage Alzheimer's concentrated on such things as improving signal transmitters between neurons. However, this treatment has hit a new point by balancing the intestinal flora of the human body, which will help curb the amylum protein from depositing too fast in human cells.

The drug’s first production line, which will meet the needs of two million patients, began in early November, and patients will be able to buy the drug through sales channels all across the country beginning on Dec 29. More production lines will be put into operation to gradually satisfy market expectation.