Patient access to new Alzheimer’s drugs will depend on diagnostic innovation and payment reform

If Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease therapy aducanumab gets approved this year, it will set off a payment time bomb given the huge patient population, and the fact it almost exclusively falls in the Medicare age group. As things stand, who gets the therapy will depend on whether progress can be made on diagnostics, data collection and new payment models.

If those issues aren’t sorted out, it’s possible that only patients with the resources to pay out of pocket for the required screening tests -- and maybe even for the drug itself -- will have access to the therapy...