“GAP strongly encourages ICER to revamp its model to accurately reflect Leqembi’s benefits and what matters most to patients and their families”
For immediate release:
Washington, D.C. (March 17, 2023) — Joining other Alzheimer’s advocates, experts and researchers, Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation® (GAP) President John Dwyer provided written comments as part of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) public meeting on Alzheimer’s disease, which is evaluating the FDA-approved medication lecanemab (Leqembi).
GAP’s submission about Leqembi follows previous work GAP has done to call for full coverage-to-label support for all FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatments and medications, ensuring access to life-changing treatments at an affordable price.
GAP’s comments are in response to ICER’s Dec. 22 draft evidence report:
“The quantitative data supporting Leqembi conclusively shows that it provides meaningful clinical benefit and that it will offer many patients a significant delay in the devasting deficits in cognition and in the activities of daily living that plague patients and families living with Alzheimer’s.
The ICER report demonstrates a negative bias from a lack of scientific rigor and clinical experience.
It is our understanding that the team that drafted the report was devoid of Board-Certified Neurologists or other scientific professionals that conduct Alzheimer’s research or treat Alzheimer’s patients routinely.
GAP strongly encourages ICER to revamp its model to accurately reflect Leqembi’s benefits and what matters most to patients and their families.”
In submitting the comments, Dwyer said, “GAP opposes any regulatory structure that blocks access to Alzheimer’s disease-modifying therapies. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ recent decisions have resulted in blatant discrimination against people with Alzheimer’s disease. Never has CMS failed to cover an entire class of FDA-approved drugs.”
For immediate release:
Contact: media@globalalzplatform.org
About the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP)
The nonprofit Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation® was founded to speed the delivery of Alzheimer’s treatments with a commitment to promoting diversity in clinical research, as well as lowering the cost and duration of clinical trials to ensure that no one is left behind. As part of its mission, GAP supports more than 100 clinical research sites around the world through study start up and recruitment activities, promoting diversity in research studies, and recognizing the citizen scientists who make research possible.