The drug is the second Alzheimer’s medicine to receive a lukewarm reception from the UK government in recent months. The new Alzheimer’s drug Kisunla has been approved in the UK, but the government won’t be paying for it after an independent watchdog agency said the treatment isn’t worth the cost to taxpayers. It is the second Alzheimer’s drug to receive such a mixed reception within months.
In August, the UK regulator authorised Leqembi, and the same watchdog agency issued draft guidance recommending the National Health Service (NHS) not to buy it. In a statement on Wednesday, the regulatory agency said Kisunla “showed some evidence of efficacy in slowing (Alzheimer’s) progression” and approved its use to treat people in the early stages of the brain-robbing disease. Kisunla, also known as donanemab, works by removing a sticky protein from the brain believed to cause Alzheimer’s disease.
Meanwhile, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), said more evidence was needed to prove Kisunla’s worth. The drug’s maker, Eli Lilly, says a year’s worth of treatment is $32,000 (about €28,700). NICE said that the cost of administering Kisunla, which requires regular intravenous infusions and rigorous monitoring for potentially severe side effects including brain swelling or bleeding, “means it cannot currently be considered good value for the taxpayer”.
Experts at NICE said they “recognized the importance of new treatment option.
