Health assessment body NICE says the benefits “are too small to justify the costs”.
The first drug to slow the progression of early stage Alzheimer’s won’t be available on the NHS because health assessment body NICE says the benefits “are too small to justify the costs”., the drug was shown to slow cognitive decline by about a quarter in patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s over the course of 18 months.
“Lecanemab provides on average four to six months' slowing in the rate of progression from mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, but this is just not enough benefit to justify the additional cost to the NHS,” said Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE.Lecanemab works by clearing a rogue protein called amyloid which builds up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. It is given as an intravenous infusion every two weeks.
Although most of these in trials were mild or without symptoms, in some cases participants required hospital treatment. Although the MHRA has approved the drug in the UK, it has set out some restrictions on patients who can receive the drug because of the risk of side effects. Neither of these is a standard diagnostic tool for patients with suspected dementia and they are used only in research settings. It’s been estimated that only 2% of Alzheimer’s patients have access to one of these "gold standard" diagnostic methods.
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