Eisai says new Alzheimer's drug to cost $26,500 annually

Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co Ltd said on Friday it had priced its newly approved Alzheimer's disease drug called Leqembi at $26,500 a year.

Eisai developed the drug with Biogen Inc.

Wall Street analysts were expecting the drug to be priced at roughly $20,000 per year, while William Blair analyst Myles Minter late last year forecast a price closer to $28,000 given its most recent data.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), a drug pricing research group, said the treatment would be cost effective if priced in the range of $8,500 to $20,600 a year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed use of the drug, known chemically as lecanemab, via its accelerated approval pathway in people with the early stages of the brain-wasting disease.

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