lecanemab

The clinic will provide two medications that can slow the progression of the disease in early stages: Leqembi and Kisunla. The Roskamp Institute plans to open the facility in September.

Treatments that can slow the disease in some patients have recently become more widely available, but not everyone can benefit.

Insurers selling coverage in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York, among other states, say they won’t cover Leqembi with insurance offered on the individual market and through employers because they see the $26,000-a-year drug as experimental.

Clinics serving Alzheimer’s patients are working out the details of who will get treated with the new drug Leqembi. It won’t be for everyone with memory-loss symptoms.

The annual cost of lecanemab treatment quadruples if the expense of brain scans to monitor for bleeds and other associated care is factored in. The full financial toll likely puts it beyond reach for low-income seniors.

In a large study, the experimental drug donanemab slowed the progression of Alzheimer's by about 35%. That's slightly better than the drug Leqembi, which was fully approved by the FDA on July 6.

The first drug found to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease has been granted full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

Minorities tend to be diagnosed at later stages of the disease, which would exclude them from use of Leqembi. Few Black people were included in the main trial of the drug.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant full approval to the Alzheimer's drug lecanemab by July 6. But access to the drug may still be limited.

The AHEAD Study - with participants in the Orlando region - examines whether the newly approved drug lecanemab can prevent or at least delay the appearance of Alzheimer's symptoms.