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by twasold 528 days ago
Insurance doesn’t cover them precisely because they don’t work.

https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/does-it-work-does-...

1 comments

Beat me to it. Relevant Derek Lowe quote from a different article.

  But as I did when I wrote about the lecanemab data, let’s get some of the disclaimers out of the way at the beginning. I mentioned there that no Alzheimer’s drug candidate has ever stopped the progression of disease, and that of course means that no such candidate has ever reversed any of the damage, either. See below for more on that as it relates to donanemab, but what we’re looking for in all these cases is essentially slowing down the rate at which these patients deteriorate.
  …
  But here goes: lecanemab slowed decline by 27% on the CDR-SB scale, and donanemab slowed it by 29%. As you will can see from my earlier writeup on the former drug, opinion was very much divided on whether the lecanemab numbers would even be noticeable in real-world use (there is no standard for clinically meaningful efficacy in CDR-SB changes). So I would have to think that the same objections apply here. We cannot be sure that this drug will actually make a difference in the real-world care of patients with Alzheimer’s - not yet, anyway. This point is completely avoided in the Lilly press release, but it is nonetheless real and we will be hearing more about it from clinicians - well, if you listen closely above all the noise, that is.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/lilly-s-new-donane...