Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) Lecanemab and (b) other new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are made accessible to eligible patients through the NHS.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether new medicines should be routinely funded based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. The NICE evaluates all new medicines, including medicines for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and aims to publish guidance for the NHS as close as possible to licensing. The NHS in England is legally required to fund recommended treatments, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.

The NICE concluded that the evidence presented so far shows that neither donanemab nor lecanemab provide enough benefit to justify the substantial resources the NHS would need to commit to implement access to them. The NICE has not yet published final guidance on either medicine, and its independent Appraisal Committee will meet on 14 May to consider the responses to its recent consultation.

To prepare for the new generation of dementia treatments in development, NHS England is working to ensure the diagnostic and treatment capacity, clinical pathway redesign, and investments are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and NICE-recommended treatments as soon as possible.