Happy Friday, everyone! This is Elizabeth Cooney, sitting in for Ed Silverman this fine morning. Remember when summer was a slow season for news? No? Either way, here are some items to bolster our case.
A panel of medical experts convened by the Institute of Clinical and Economic Review unanimously voted that there is no evidence to suggest Biogen’s (BIIB) recently approved Alzheimer’s drug offers patients any health benefits beyond the usual care, STAT reports. The 15-to-0 vote also amounted to a rebuke of the Food and Drug Administration, whose officials appeared to bend over backwards to endorse Aduhelm, citing the vast unmet medical need facing the estimated 6 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. ICER recently determined the worth of the new Biogen drug is no more than $8,400.
Three large hospitals are declining to administer Biogen’s Aduhelm, the latest rupture to emerge from the FDA’s controversial approval of the drug last month, the Wall Street Journal says. The Cleveland Clinic, Mount Sinai Health System in New York, and Providence in Renton, Wash., said they wouldn’t administer the drug to patients amid a debate about the drug’s effectiveness and whether the FDA lowered its standards in approving the medicine. And Mass General Brigham, the largest health care provider in Massachusetts, is unlikely to offer the Alzheimer’s drug to patients taking blood thinners because of concerns about the risk of bleeding in the brain, the Boston Globe says, citing to two doctors helping to develop a policy on the medicine.
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