Medicare expects to spend $3.5 billion on new Alzheimer’s drug in 2025

 Medicare for the first time has estimated that a new Alzheimer’s treatment could cost the program billions of dollars by next year — well beyond what Wall Street or even the drug’s manufacturer has projected — according to a document obtained by STAT.

Medicare’s actuaries expect the drug Leqembi, made by the Japanese drugmaker Eisai and sold in partnership with Biogen, to cost the traditional Medicare program around $550 million in 2024, and the entire Medicare program $3.5 billion in 2025, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirmed to STAT. That projection forecasts a large increase in uptake over the next year and a half.

https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/11/medicare-will-spend-billions-on-alzheimers-drug-leqembi-eisai-biogen/