Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to make Lecanemab available on the NHS to patients with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

We understand how important it is to patients and their families that they are able to benefit from access to innovative treatments that can slow down the effects of this complex disease.

Decisions on whether new medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service are made independently by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on the basis of the evidence of costs and benefits. The methods and processes that NICE uses are internationally respected and have been developed through extensive engagement with academics, industry, patients and clinicians, to ensure that they reflect best practice and societal preferences.

NICE is currently developing guidance for the NHS on the use of lecanemab and recently published draft guidance for consultation that does not recommend it as a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. We recognise that NICE’s draft decision will be disappointing, but it is right that these decisions are made independently based on the available evidence of their costs and benefits. NICE has not yet published final guidance and stakeholders now have an opportunity to comment on NICE’s draft recommendations.