Eisai Korea launches new Alzheimer’s drug ‘Lecanemab’ in the domestic market

Lecanemab is a treatment with a new mechanism that removes amyloid-beta (Aβ), one of the main causative agents of Alzheimer’s disease. It binds to both toxic soluble amyloid-beta aggregates and insoluble amyloid-beta aggregates to reduce amyloid-beta plaques in the brain. In May, it received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety as a treatment for adult patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s disease caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the results of the Phase 3 clinical trial ‘Clarity AD’, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of Lecanemab, it reduced the CDR-SB (Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes) by 0.45 points compared to the placebo group at 18 months of treatment, delaying the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by 27% and altering the disease progression path. In the open-label extension (OLE) study, in which 95% of patients who completed Clarity AD participated, the CDR-SB score of patients treated for three years decreased by 0.95 points compared to the natural decline of Alzheimer’s disease estimated based on the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI).

Ko Hong-byeong, the CEO of Eisai Korea, said, “Alzheimer’s disease is a condition with significant burdens and unmet medical needs for patients and families, and until now, there have been no drugs that fundamentally treat the root cause of the disease. The advent of Lecanemab is expected to usher in a new era of Alzheimer’s disease treatment starting from the stage of mild cognitive impairment.”

Meanwhile, it is estimated that there are about 900,000 dementia patients aged 65 or older in Korea. It is reported that 1 in 10 people aged 65 or older have dementia, and 1 in 5 have mild cognitive impairment. It is also known that 70% of all dementia cases are due to Alzheimer’s disease. Eisai Korea stated, “The average annual management cost per dementia patient is about 21.1 million won, and about 33.1 million won for severe dementia.”