With the U.S. nearing full approval of the first drug shown to slow down Alzheimer’s disease, expectations for the treatment are also rising in Japan, where the ranks of people with the disease are increasing. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has also made tackling dementia a top policy agenda.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide by Thursday whether to grant full approval for lecanemab, developed by Japanese drugmaker Eisai with U.S. company Biogen, following its conditional approval there in January and a unanimous vote last month by an FDA advisory panel confirming its clinical benefit.
In Japan, where Eisai filed for approval in January, the intravenous infusion drug is undergoing priority review by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, which means it could be approved in the country as early as this fall.