Eli Lilly Stock Gains After FDA Advisors Recommend Alzheimers Drug Donanemab [Video]

Eli Lilly (LLY) shares gained more than 2% in extended trading on Monday after a panel of independent advisors to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unanimously recommended the pharmaceutical giant’s Alzheimer’s drug donanemab, increasing the likelihood of its approval in the U.S. later this year.

While several of the advisors raised concerns about donanemab’s effectiveness in Black and Hispanic patients, among other groups, in the first vote, the committee unanimously said the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks in the second vote.

If approved, the drug would join Leqembi, a similar Alzhiemer’s drug manufactured by Biogen (BIIB) and its Japanese partner Eisai (ESAIY), to expand treatment options for the 6 million Americans who live with the memory-destroying disease. Both donanemab and Leqembi work by removing toxic beta amyloid plaques from the brains of people with early Alzheimer’s, helping to slow its progression, though neither treatment provides a cure.

“We really are …