Annual Wasteful Spending on Lecanemab Estimated at $133 to $336 Million

FRIDAY, Oct. 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Annual wasteful spending on discarded lecanemab is anticipated to range between $133 and $336 million, given current vial sizes, according to a research letter published online Oct. 14 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Noting that lecanemab dosing is weight-based and only available in 500- and 200-mg vials, Frank F. Zhou, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles, and colleagues quantified the projected cost of discarded lecanemab in the U.S. Medicare program. Participants from the 2020 Health Retirement Study aged 65 years and older who were potentially eligible for lecanemab by having mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia were included; the required dose and most cost-efficient number of vials to provide that dose were determined for each patient.

A total of 1,490 participants were included, representing about 7.2 million eligible individuals. The researchers found that the current vial sizes could result in 5.8 percent of dispensed lecanemab being wasted among this population, representing 1.6 wasted doses and $1,619 of wasteful spending per patient per year. The total annual wasteful spending on discarded lecanemab would range between $133 and $336 million assuming lower and upper estimates of 1.1 and 2.9 percent drug uptake. In simulations of alternative vial sizes, adding a 75-mg vial would achieve the greatest reduction in waste (74 percent), representing annual savings of $99 million.

“We anticipate $133 million to $336 million in annual wasteful spending on discarded lecanemab in the Medicare population, which would rank lecanemab as the second or third costliest Medicare Part B drug in terms of waste,” the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to Milliman MedInsight.

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