VUB neurologist advocates affordable Alzheimer’s medicine, now that new treatment can cost around 25,000 euros per year | Interior

Professor Engelborghs is head of the Neurology department at UZ Brussel and a board member of the European Alzheimer Disease Consortium (EADC). Together with his colleagues, he is looking forward to the promising Alzheimer’s drug Lecanemab, which was approved in January by the American drug watchdog FDA. The European EMA service will probably follow shortly.

In the United States, treatment will cost up to $24,700 annually. A high price is also threatening in the European Union. “We estimate the population potentially eligible for Lecanemab treatment in the EU at 5.4 million people,” said Engelborghs. Based on the American cost, this means a total cost of more than 133 billion euros per year.

Because the price negotiations with the producer will probably take place on a country-by-country basis, there is a threat of major inequality within the EU Member States. To counter this, new payment models and more infrastructure are needed for new therapies in routine care.

According to Engelborghs, it is not just about the price of the medicine itself. The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is based on biomarker studies that are not reimbursed. Patients taking lecanemab should also be checked regularly for side effects.

Lecanemab, which will be sold under the brand name Leqembi, was developed by the Japanese-American pharmaceutical duo Eisai-Biogen. The drug is intended for patients with mild Alzheimer’s and is the first treatment proven to slow the progression of the disease. However, the drug cannot repair damage to memory that has already been done. Nor can it reverse the course of the disease or stop the disease from getting worse.

The drug’s approval is based on a large study that showed that patients who received Leqembi for 18 months deteriorated 27 percent more slowly than patients who received a placebo (dummy drug).