Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on approving new drugs for Alzheimer's disease.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether new medicines should be routinely funded based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. NICE evaluates all new medicines, including medicines for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, and aims to publish guidance for the NHS as close as possible to licensing. The NHS in England is legally required to fund recommended treatments, normally within three months of the publication of final guidance.

NICE published its final draft guidance on the disease-modifying treatments lecanemab and donanemab, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, in June. NICE concluded that the evidence presented so far shows that neither donanemab nor lecanemab provide enough benefit to justify the substantial resources the NHS would need to commit to implement access to them. NICE has received appeals against its draft recommendations which are scheduled to be heard by an independent panel in October 2025.