8 July 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Shonna Jones is no stranger to the devastating reality of Alzheimer’s. Both her mother and her grandmother passed away due to the debilitating disease. Now with concerns she herself could be at risk one day, the fact a new drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration could help her and future generations has been a victory long overdue.
“My mom was just an energetic, vibrant. Everybody loved her,” Jones said. “She was everybody’s mom.”
Jones says her mother suffered from Alzheimer’s for eight years before she passed away—the disease taking a devastating toll on the entire family.
“She didn’t know who I was, didn’t know who my father was, and they were married almost 60 years,” Jones said.
Although Jones herself has not been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she has participated in a clinical trial for another potential treatment. She says the FDA’s decision to approve a new drug for Early-Onset Alzheimer’s has given her renewed hope.
“Knowing that there is now a drug out there that if I did start to show signs there is something we can do about it, I mean that is, that is truly a miracle,” Jones said.
The drug in question is Leqembi (administered via an intravenous injection). According to the New England Journal of Medicine, a clinical trial of 1,800 people between the ages of 50-90 with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s showed patients treated with Leqembi had a 27 percent slower rate of cognitive decline compared to the placebo group after 18 months of treatment.
“It was a much better result than what we saw with Aducanamab, which was the first drug, so, this is why it has taken a while, and another part of this is the expense,” Juliette Bradley, the Kansas State Director of Communications for The Alzheimer’s Association, said.
Bradley says for one year of treatment, the total cost is $26,000. Although Medicare has agreed to pay for the drug, Bradly says there are stipulations.
“They want the individuals who are part of this to be part of what they call a registry, so that they, their information is going to need to be in a database,” Bradley said.
“Hopefully, it’s not such a long, drawn-out approval process with the registry that you lose, you know, six months to a year,” Jones said.
If you think you or a loved one may qualify for Leqembi, The Alzheimer’s Association has a 24/7 helpline that can answer your questions and connect you to additional resources. For more information, click here.