The latest Alzheimer’s drug should be cheaper than the last one, analysis says
One of the many questions swirling around two new Alzheimer’s drugs — Aduhelm, which was approved last year amid controversy, and lecanemab, whose FDA nod could be nigh — is their cost. Aduhelm was first priced at $56,000 per year, but that was later slashed in half. Medicare balked because of doubts about whether the drug works, putting in place a policy that all but prohibits reimbursing for Aduhelm and any Alzheimer’s medicines that work by targeting toxic plaques in the brain. That category that includes lecanemab, the latest Alzheimer’s disease treatment from Eisai and Biogen.
Enter a draft analysis from ICER. The influential nonprofit said yesterday lecanemab must be cheaper than $20,000 a year to be cost-effective for modestly delaying the advance of Alzheimer’s. Eisai hasn’t said how much it will charge for the drug, expected to win FDA approval by Jan. 6. STAT’s Damian Garde has more.
