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(Reuters) – Eisai and Biogen said on Friday that they had launched their Alzheimer’s drug Lycambi in China, the third country to launch the drug in China after the United States and Japan.
Limbe, which works by removing a toxic protein called beta-amyloid from the brain, is the first Alzheimer’s treatment proven to alter the course of this deadly brain-destructive disease.
The two companies said in a statement that the drug will be released for the first time on the private market at a price of 2,508 yuan ($345.04) for a 200 mg vial.
Eisai also cooperated with a major Chinese medical insurance company to plan to partially cover the cost of the drug, the companies said without naming the insurer.
China approved the treatment in January after regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration last July.
More appropriate blood tests for Alzheimer’s, which are expected to be ready by 2025, could help Eisai reach a larger share of the estimated 17 million people in China with the disease, a company spokesman told Reuters after the approval in China. The disease is at an early stage.
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