Big vials of Alzheimer’s drug could cost Medicare $336M

October 15, 2024

Unmarked bottle of medicine

(Axios) – What they found: While doses are calculated individually based on patient weight, the current vial sizes could lead to 5.8% of the dispensed drug being wasted, the UCLA researchers calculated. That comes out to $1,619 of unnecessary spending per patient per year. Discarded lecanemab could cost taxpayers between $133 million and $336 million annually, depending on how many patients use it, making it one of the three costliest Medicare drugs measured by wasted product. (Read More)