The first drug shown to slow the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer’s disease will not be available on the NHS after a decision by the medicine’s regulator.The decision on funding lecanemab has caused upset and disappointment from those hoping the drug could help fight a horrible and devastating disease.But the decision is also not a shock.Lecanemab is not a “wonder drug”. The European Medicines Agency looked at the same data as the UK and concluded the drug should not be prescribed to anyone outside of a clinical trial. But what would it take to get an Alzheimer’s-slowing drug covered by the NHS?The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has the job of working out what is a good use of taxpayers’ money. It is where the emotion, desperate need and lobbying for therapies come up against the cold, hard calculations of cost-effectiveness.Dementia drugs that help manage symptoms, such as confusion, have been approved in the past.But this is the first time a drug that changes the course of the disease has been assessed. This is a more familiar experience in other diseases. Earlier this summer the cancer drug Enhertu, which can extend the lives of some people with incurable breast cancer, was rejected because it was too expensive.But even very expensive drugs – I reported on a one-off gene therapy that has an official cost of £2.6m – can be approved if the benefit is big enough. Lecanemab has issues with its effectiv …
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe first drug shown to slow the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer’s disease will not be available on the NHS after a decision by the medicine’s regulator.The decision on funding lecanemab has caused upset and disappointment from those hoping the drug could help fight a horrible and devastating disease.But the decision is also not a shock.Lecanemab is not a “wonder drug”. The European Medicines Agency looked at the same data as the UK and concluded the drug should not be prescribed to anyone outside of a clinical trial. But what would it take to get an Alzheimer’s-slowing drug covered by the NHS?The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has the job of working out what is a good use of taxpayers’ money. It is where the emotion, desperate need and lobbying for therapies come up against the cold, hard calculations of cost-effectiveness.Dementia drugs that help manage symptoms, such as confusion, have been approved in the past.But this is the first time a drug that changes the course of the disease has been assessed. This is a more familiar experience in other diseases. Earlier this summer the cancer drug Enhertu, which can extend the lives of some people with incurable breast cancer, was rejected because it was too expensive.But even very expensive drugs – I reported on a one-off gene therapy that has an official cost of £2.6m – can be approved if the benefit is big enough. Lecanemab has issues with its effectiv …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
