The first drug promising to slow the memory-robbing march of Alzheimer's was approved by U.S. health regulators
It may also recruit immune cells to ingest amyloid depositsBiogen has said it expects aducanumab sales to be modest this year as it launches the drug, and to start growing thereafter. Analysts polled by FactSet project sales of $62.7 million in 2021, $603.2 million in 2022 and $1.6 billion in 2023.
Biogen priced the newly approved drug higher than analysts expected. The company said it would charge about $56,000 a year per patient. There were 121,499 deaths from Alzheimer’s in the U.S. in 2019, up 54% from a decade earlier, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After accounting for age and population growth, per capita deaths grew 23% over the period.
Biogen developed Aduhelm to treat people with mild cases of cognitive impairment or dementia whose brains have accumulated beta amyloid, which many researchers believe plays a significant role in Alzheimer’s disease for many patients. “We have demonstrated efficacy for the earlier population…. For the others, we don’t know,” Mr. Vounatsos said in an interview. “This will be the position of the company, to engage with the customers based on our data, and based on the population treated.”“I will no doubt field dozens, if not hundreds, of phone calls within the first day or week,” said Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian hospital.
The drug also faces skepticism from some doctors over its unusual and controversial path to approval.after determining that they were unlikely to be successful, only to reverse course several months later after reviewing additional data.based on the discontinued studies after discussing the matter with the FDA.
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