Who will pay for Aduhelm?
Now that Aduhelm (aducanumab) has been approved by the FDA for people with early-stage Alzheimer’s, those with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia, who will be responsible for the $56,000 annual price tag? A...
Category: Alzheimer’s disease
TRAILBLAZER-ALZ3
A recurring theme of my blog has been that our best shot at attacking Alzheimer’s disease is in the earliest stage, before cognitive impairment has started. We now know that the first pathological signs...
The first case of Alzheimer’s disease
Yesterday I came across an interesting paper from 2013 in Lancet Neurology that adds important information about the case of Auguste D, the first patient diagnosed with what was later called Alzheimer’s disease. I mentioned this...
Pushback against aducanumab (Aduhelm)
As reported in the New York Times today, two prominent American medical institutions, the Cleveland Clinic and the Mt. Sinai Health System in New York, have announced that they will not allow administration of...
New FDA guidelines for use of Aduhelm – a step in chasing the rainbow?
Today Biogen announced the changes highlighted in yellow below in the prescribing information for Aduhelm, recently approved for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. There were several problems with the FDA’s initial brand label authorizing use...
The importance of paying attention
I read Lisa Genova’s first book, Still Alice, in 2009, long before I had any inkling that I was on the path to Alzheimer’s. I was busy in my practice as a general neurologist, and...
The cost of aducanumab
When donepezil (Aricept) was approved in 1996, it was the first tolerable drug available to treat the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. I remember being shocked that the price was so high, about $120...
Aducanumab controversies
Yesterday I participated in a panel discussion regarding recommendations for use of aducanumab, now called by the proprietary name Aduhelm, in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The conference, Dialogue: Current Perspectives on Aducanumab, was sponsored...
Sensory triggers of memory
Marcel Proust famously wrote in his semi-autobiographical novel Remembrance of Things Past published in 1913 how the smell and taste of a tea-soaked madeleine cake evoked the childhood memory of breakfast with his Aunt Léonie. The...
FDA approves aducanumab
Today the FDA approved the use of Biogen’s anti-amyloid monoclonal antibody aducanumab for treating early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. I have mixed feelings about this approval. As someone living with early-stage Alzheimer’s who participated in the aducanumab...
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