NHS Could Make New Dementia Drugs Available
核心洞察
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper told The i Paper the government will look at making dementia drugs available on the NHS after changes to NICE cost-effectiveness guidance.
Lecanemab, sold as Leqembi, and donanemab were licensed in the UK in 2024 but NICE declined to recommend either for NHS use on cost grounds.
NICE has paused its evaluation of lecanemab while the NHS and manufacturer Eisai hold commercial talks, with similar discussions under way with Eli Lilly.
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper has raised the prospect that lecanemab and donanemab could be made available on the NHS, telling The i Paper that recent changes to NICE cost-effectiveness guidance are already making it possible to get more drugs funded. Asked whether she would seek a workaround for dementia drugs, she said: "We've got areas where some of the changes that we have made to the Nice guidance are making it possible to get more drugs available on the NHS. So we are seeing that happening now, but we'll look at the dementia [drugs]." Cooper has no power to order a drug onto the NHS, and any decision would be made independently by NICE at the request of the NHS or the Department of Health.
The UK became the first country in Europe to license lecanemab, sold as Leqembi, in 2024 after trials showed a significant reduction in decline among eligible patients with early-stage Alzheimer's disease (搜索). Donanemab was licensed a few months later. NICE initially declined to recommend either drug for NHS use, saying the benefits would not outweigh the cost to the health service, leaving both reserved for patients who could pay privately. Earlier this year the government raised by around 25 per cent the limit for what NICE considers good value for money, the first change to its cost-effectiveness threshold in the watchdog's 25-year history, following a pharmaceutical trade deal with the US.
The NHS and Eisai, the company behind lecanemab, are in talks to explore "all reasonable opportunities" to secure a positive outcome for NHS patients, and NICE said it paused its separate evaluation of lecanemab after those commercial discussions began. Similar talks are under way with Eli Lilly, which makes donanemab. Eisai has won a government grant to expand its site in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, where drugs including lecanemab could be manufactured for supply across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Cooper also said the government would appoint a dementia tsar to bring together prevention, treatment and care.
Source: i Newspaper