Brown’s Salloway Responds to GoLocal Article on Alzheimer’s Drug Failure
Thursday, May 05, 2022
On Wednesday, GoLocal published an extensive report on the drug Aduhelm — the Biogen Alzheimer’s drug that has become one of the most controversial drugs in American history.
Brown University professor Dr. Stephen Salloway was a major researcher and a leading advocate for the drug.
Salloway did not respond to a series of GoLocal questions on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, after the article was published, he sent the following statement:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Although Aduhelm clearly lowers amyloid plaques the uncertainty regarding the significance of the clinical benefit made the approval controversial. The controversy plus the uncertainty regarding insurance coverage limited patient access and led to a disappointing roll out. The goal is to develop treatments that clearly slow cognitive decline and promote better quality of life. There will be new data coming in the next 12-18 months from phase 3 trials of 3 other amyloid-lowering drugs, lecanemab, donanemab and gantenerumab.
These results will provide important information about the safety and effectiveness of this type of medication for patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer’s Association along with Alzheimer’s experts and the American College of Radiology are developing a national registry to monitor the safety and efficacy of new FDA-approved treatments for AD that are used in clinical practice.”
More Questions and Failure for Aduhelm
Also on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published another scathing article about the performance of Aduhelm and the impact the drug has had on Biogen’s economic performance.
“The company is at a strategic crossroads now,” Brian Abrahams, an RBC Capital Markets analyst, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "For a lot of neuroscience and neurodegenerative disease, it’s still all or nothing, swinging for the fences.”
The WSJ wrote, "The company’s prospects looked bright when the drug, Aduhelm, was approved less than a year ago. Analysts expected the drug would notch billions of dollars in sales, and carry the company forward as competitors made inroads against its aging multiple-sclerosis franchise."
But many doctors questioned whether Aduhelm really worked, and sales lagged behind as Medicare and other health insurers refused to pay for the drug -- originally marketed at $56,000.
The company also said it was taking steps to end the marketing of Aduhelm.
And on Monday, UnitedHealthcare joined a growing list of health insurers that is restricting insurance coverage of Aduhelm across all of its health plans, saying the drug “is unproven and not medically necessary for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease due to insufficient evidence of efficacy,” according to the company.
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