Investigating the wonder biologic Lecanemab for Alzheimer's Disease

Part 1

The story starts with Carl alerting Tom of the Telegraph headline.

As we have already explained, “wonder,” “game changer,” “miracle,” and “designer” are all suspicious adjectives when associated with a drug or biologic. Carl was particularly concerned about the triumphalist tone of the pieces, which had obviously been written to push the product. “Patients denied ‘game-changing’ lecanemab,” screamed the headline.

Reading on, it seemed that the target was one of our society's most intractable and devastating degenerative diseases, and the solution appeared to be the administration of a recombinant monoclonal antibody (MAB) against amyloid plaques in the brain.

In the article, we also picked up vague concerns about toxicity, the target being mild to moderate cases, the exorbitant price of the MAB and the need for supervision. NICE, whose job it is to ensure that the taxpayers’ are not ripped off, was severe…