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The Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug that may help people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s maintain their mental abilities.
Lecanemab, which will be marketed as Leqembi, is likely to reach many more patients than a similar product, Aduhelm, which flopped after receiving a controversial approval in 2021.
« This is a milestone for people eligible for this treatment, for their families, for the research community, » says Maria Carrillo, chief science officer for the Alzheimer’s Association.
But Leqembi, like Aduhelm, can cause swelling or bleeding in the brain, which means patients must receive periodic brain scans after starting treatment. It’s also unclear whether Medicare and private health insurers will cover the drug, which is likely to cost tens of thousands of dollars each year.
Eisai and Biogen, the companies that developed Leqembi, have not yet announced pricing.
The new drug, which is given intravenously every other week, removes a substance called amyloid from the brain. Sticky amyloid plaques are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, though many previous drugs that targeted amyloid failed to slow down patients’ loss of mental abilities.
