(Bloomberg) -- Eisai Co. and Biogen Inc.’s Alzheimer’s treatment lecanemab won’t be made available to patients through Britain’s National Health Service, with the drug cost regulator saying the benefits are too small to justify the cost.
The country’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, on Thursday authorized the antibody treatment for slowing progression in mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.
However, the drug doesn’t offer good value, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which weighs the benefits of a drug with its cost. It cited the intensive monitoring for potential side effects that the fortnightly infusions require, “combined with the relatively small benefits.”
The guidance is still in draft stage and is now open for consultation, meaning it could change.
“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,” Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE, said in a statement.
About 70,000 patients in England could have been eligible for the treatment. The list price of the drug in the US is $26,500 for a year but prices are usually substantially lower in the UK.
The announcements “will bring a mix of emotions for those who have been waiting a long time since the promising trial results were first announced,” said Fiona Carragher, chief policy and research officer at Alzheimer’s Society.
NICE has come under criticism in recent months for its rejection of expensive drugs that have shown they could help patients. AstraZeneca Plc Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot has warned that Britain must improve access to innovative pharmaceuticals or life sciences companies won’t invest in the country.
(Updates with guidance status in fourth paragraph, quotes in fifth, seventh.)
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