Leqembi is only available in 500 mg and 200 mg single-use vials, so significant amounts of this medication are wasted when the patient is prescribed lower amounts.
A new study says a simple change in the currently available sizes of the innovative Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi could save Medicare (the federal health insurance program in the United States for seniors 65 and older) billions of dollars each year . About 6 percent of Leqembi, also known as lecanemab, is discarded because patients are mostly prescribed doses smaller than the size of the drug’s single-use vials.
A report recently published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine says waste costs Medicare about $1,600 per patient each year, researchers estimated in a report published Oct. 14 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Doses administered are based on each patient’s individual body weight. However, because the medication is currently only available in single-use 500 mg and 200 mg vials, substantial quantities of this expensive medication are wasted when the dose a patient is prescribed is less than the amount contained in the medication. vials.
According to the researchers, making a 75 mg vial available alongside the two current options could save Medicare up to 74 percent of the money lost from discarded Leqembi. “It is imperative to reduce spending on services that do not improve patients’ health, and this is a great example of that, given that Medicare pays for a drug to literally throw away some of it,” said lead researcher Dr. Frank . Zhou, a fourth-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, wrote in the journal.
How does Leqembi work in Alzheimer’s patients?
According to clinical trials, the drug, intended for people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, has a marginal net clinical benefit. Many previous studies suggested that the cost of Leqembi, along with ancillary costs such as treatment for brain inflammation related to the drug, could cost Medicare between $2 billion and $5 billion each year.
Zhou also said health care costs continue to rise, putting significant pressure on the Medicare budget.
Medicare patients are prescribed Leqembi if they have been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s disease and their doctor agrees to participate in ongoing data collection on the medication’s effectiveness. Previous estimates have held that Leqembi treatment could cost Medicare between $2 billion and $5 billion a year, depending on the number of people eligible to receive the drug.
According to experts, the drug shows that taking lecanemab for 18 months slows the rate of cognitive decline. It is not yet known whether the drug helps in other ways, such as slowing the development of Alzheimer’s in people without symptoms of memory loss.
The medication is administered by intravenous infusion every two weeks. However, doctors say those who take lecanemab have side effects such as dizziness, headache, visual changes, confusion, swelling or bleeding in the brain, brain shrinkage, and, in rare cases, death.
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