December 21, 2021
Ken Langa comments on the FDA’s approval of a controversial drug to treat Alzheimer’s
A New York Times article discusses Biogen’s slashing of the price of its controversial new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm and the F.D.A.’s approval of the drug even though a council of senior F.D.A. officials, against the advice of an advisory committee of outside experts and many Alzheimer’s specialists, who say the drug has little benefit to patients and carries risks of dangerous side effects. The F.D.A. based its approval on Aduhelm’s ability to reduce a protein called amyloid that forms plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Ken Langa says that approving the drug because of amyloid reduction “will have huge and wide-ranging negative implications for patients, families” and dementia research.