New Alzheimer's drug will cost taxpayers billions, for limited effect

By Arthur Allen
KFF Health News

The first drug purporting to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s disease is likely to cost the U.S. health care system billions annually even as it remains out of reach for many of the lower-income seniors most likely to suffer from dementia.

Medicare and Medicaid patients will make up 92% of the market for lecanemab, according to Eisai Co., which sells the drug under the brand name Leqembi. In addition to the company’s $26,500 annual price tag for the drug, treatment could cost U.S. taxpayers $82,500 per patient per year, on average, for genetic tests and frequent brain scans, safety monitoring, and other care, according to estimates from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, or ICER. The FDA gave the drug full approval July 6. About 1 million Alzheimer’s patients in the U.S. could qualify to use it.

Patients with early Alzheimer’s disease who took lecanemab in a major clinical trial declined an average of five months slower than other subjects over an 18-month period, but many suffered brain swelling and bleeding. Although those side effects usually resolved without obvious harm, they apparently caused three deaths. The great expense of the drug and its treatment raises questions about how it will be paid for, and who will benefit.