Billions for Controversial Alzheimer’s Drug? How About Funding These Instead.

Billions for Controversial Alzheimer’s Drug? How About Funding These Instead.
What would you do with $56 billion to help seniors? adriaticfoto/Shutterstock
|Updated:

If you could invest $56 billion each year in improving health care for older adults, how would you spend it? On a hugely expensive medication with questionable efficacy—or something else?

This isn’t an abstract question. Aduhelm, a new Alzheimer’s drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month, could be prescribed to 1 million to 2 million patients per year, even if conservative criteria were used, according to Biogen and Eisai, the companies behind the drug.
Judith Graham
Judith Graham
Author
Judith Graham is a contributing columnist for Kaiser Health News, which originally published this article. KHN’s coverage of these topics is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The SCAN Foundation.
Related Topics