Washington, DC, Dec 1, 2022 – Voices of Alzheimer’s, a newly formed advocacy organization, welcomed the latest announcements on progress to develop medicines that slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and restated its insistence that Medicare reconsider its discriminatory lack of coverage for innovative medicines for people living with Alzheimer’s. 

Drugmakers released findings at the 15th Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's disease (CTAD) Conference for new treatments lecanemab and gantenaremab. The data on lecanemab released by Eisai and Biogen provides additional detail to the previous announcement of positive results in slowing Alzheimer’s and marks another significant sign of progress in the development of disease-modifying treatments. 

The results released by Eisai this week showed that its new drug lecanemab had several important findings for patients – it showed a slowing of decline of activities of daily living by 37%, a critical indicator of the quality of life of people living with Alzheimer’s and their care partners. Additionally, data showed that the treatment delayed progression of cognitive loss by 27% percent compared to placebo, which could equate to months or years of benefit to patients in terms of engaging with loved ones and living independently.

The company’s clinical trials enrolled 1,795 people with early Alzheimer’s who had evidence of the amyloid brain plaques believed to contribute to cognitive decline, and Voices of Alzheimer’s applauds the inclusionary efforts of Eisai that supported broad eligibility for participation for people with co-morbidities and the diversity of the participants in the U.S., 4.5% of which were Black and 22.5% of which were Hispanic. 

Jim Taylor, President of Voices of Alzheimer’s and long-time care partner, said that the most recent data reported represents forward movement in the search for an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s, which affects approximately 50 million people worldwide and 6 million in the United States.

These results, Taylor added, should add pressure on Medicare to reverse its blanket decision last year to refuse to cover the new drugs. “Based on the latest results in Alzheimer’s treatments, we will demand that the federal government change its discriminatory policies on coverage and allow for access to those who are losing precious time to this disease.”

The second set of research results released at CTAD came from Roche on its drug gantenerumab, which failed to demonstrate a significant benefit. Roche shared more thorough data on the results, which measured whether the treatment could slow Alzheimer’s progression as well as preserve abilities such as remembering, problem solving, and personal care.

Even though Roche could not prove a statistically significant impact of its drug gantenerumab, Eisai and Biogen’s recent results of lecanemab should help pave the way to a reconsideration by Medicare of its decision last year to deny coverage for monoclonal antibody treatments for Alzheimer’s. These drugs offer hope to millions of people worldwide who are currently living with Alzheimer’s without a therapy available that can alter the course of the disease.

Voices of Alzheimer’s strongly urges the FDA to give prompt consideration of the newest data and speedy approval of the drug, and for Medicare to facilitate access on the merits of each new treatment as it comes through the pipeline. 

“The Alzheimer’s community has waited long enough,” said Terrie Montgomery, a founding Board member of Voices of Alzheimer’s who is living with early-onset Alzheimer's. “We are now seeing the fruits of decades of advocacy to drive forward research, and we're not going to allow Medicare and Medicaid to create a new hurdle for us.”

Learn more on the Voices of Alzheimer’s website, and on social media through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

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