Biogen’s Aduhelm is Cost-Effective at $3,000 to $8,400, ICER Says

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has revised upward what it thinks Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s disease treatment Aduhelm (aducanumab) ought to cost, but the new estimate is still only a fraction of the $56,000 a year the company proposes to charge.

Ahead of the FDA’s approval of the potential blockbuster drug, ICER had said it would only be cost-effective if it cost between $2,500 and $8,300 per year. Now the nonprofit institute, which assesses the value of new medicines using cost-benefit metrics, has put the value-based price range at $3,000 to $8,400 a year.

Biogen said it plans to price the monthly infusion at $4,312 or $56,000 annually, a price that many critics say will quickly bankrupt Medicare because there are an estimated 5.3 million people 65 years and older in the U.S. with Alzheimer’s disease.