LONDON — For the second time in a matter of months, the U.K.’s cost-effectiveness watchdog has said the limited benefits of a newly approved Alzheimer’s drug do not justify its costs, threatening the possibility of the medicine reaching patients.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said in draft guidance released Wednesday that the drug, Eli Lilly’s donanemab, “cannot currently be considered good value for the taxpayer,” given the “relatively small benefit” it offers and the costs of the drug. Those include not just the price of the medicine, but also the expenses of delivering it as a monthly infusion and monitoring for the drug’s known side effects.
In the U.S., donanemab, which is approved as Kisunla, has a list price of about $32,000 a year, but in the U.K., health officials and drugmakers typically negotiate lower prices for treatments offered in the National Health Service. Patients are meant to be on Kisunla for up to 18 months.
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Author: Andrew Joseph
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