Medicare Limits Restrictions for Alzheimer’s Drug Treatment
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made an announcement on Tuesday to limit restrictions on coverage for the new Alzheimer’s drug treatment Aduhelm to only individuals involved in clinical trials.
“We agree with the [National Institute of Aging] meta-analysis that there is some preliminary research that shows promise, but it’s far from conclusive and more rigorous individual trials continue to be needed to determine the clinical benefit of anti-amyloid mABs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease,” CMS writes in the decision summary.
In June, the Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Aduhelm based on early trial data from the drug’s developer, Biogen. CMS then spent six months reviewing the results to determine if the evidence provided any promise for treating Alzheimer’s.
Sales of the drug, which reportedly dropped from $56,000 to $28,000 last month, are expected to remain low if the Medicare program will not cover patients to receive the drug. CMS expects to release more information regarding national coverage determination by mid-January 2022, and has opened up the decision for an additional 30-day public comment period that started on Jan. 11, 2022.
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