Eisai Co.’s breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug — the first to show it slows the brain-destroying disease — is facing a rocky rollout as doctors grapple with logistical issues, insurance uncertainties and complicated safety testing requirements.
The same day Eisai’s Leqembi received full US approval, Medicare officials said the government health program for the elderly will pay for it. But that doesn’t mean patients will be able to get the $26,500-a-year treatment quickly. Doctors at top medical centers said they’re still trying to coordinate required testing, reimbursement and a real-world monitoring system of patients’ side effects and cognitive status.
“I’m not even sure we know all the steps right now,” said Constantine Lyketsos, director of the the Memory and Alzheimer’s Treatment Center at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.
