(Reuters) -UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved Eli Lilly’s treatment for early Alzheimer’s disease, the company said on Wednesday.
Britain is the third major market where donanemab, branded as Kisunla, has been approved, Lilly said. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July and by Japan in September.
Yet, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which decides what drugs are available on the NHS, said in a draft determination that donanemab does not currently demonstrate value for the NHS.
Currently, there are about 982,000 people living with dementia in the UK, with 50%-75% of cases attributable to Alzheimer’s, according to data from the NICE.
(Reporting by Prerna Bedi, Shanima A and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Varun H K)
