NHS is 'not ready' for game-changing Alzheimer's drug, experts warn

19 July 2023 , 15:28

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NHS is 'not ready' for game-changing Alzheimer's drug, experts warn

Patients face a postcode lottery for the brain scans needed to access the Alzheimer’s drug that has been hailed as a game changer, researchers fear.

In what is seen as a huge breakthrough in combatting the disease, a global trial confirmed that donanemab slows cognitive decline by up to 35 per cent.

Although not a cure, charities cheered a new era where dementia can be treated.

But it is feared the NHS may not be ready when the drug becomes available in Britain in 18 months.

Due to "significant shortages of staff and equipment" and the need for Positron emission tomography (PET) scanners in certain areas, where you live could determine the treatment offered.

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Much of Wales and Scotland, as well as English counties such as Cumbria, Norfolk and Lincolnshire, are reported to have low numbers of the vital technology.

The scanners are understood to cost £1.7million and supplies are short.

Alzheimer’s Research UK chief executive Hilary Evans fears the drug will achieve a fraction of its potential in the next few years because of it.

She is concerned that the true number of those helped will be far lower than the 720,000 who could benefit.

“This is really concerning. The worst possible outcome would be for the science to deliver, as it has, and for the treatments to start coming through – yet patients aren’t able to access them,” she told the i.

“Where you live has quite a major bearing if you live in an area of the country that is going to be quite a distance from a hospital that has PET scanners and a workforce that are equipped and trained to be able to use them.

“You’re also talking about people who might be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s so travelling for a couple of hours to get to a major centre that has PET scans and infusion clinics who can deliver the drug itself is going to be a bit of a challenge."

The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.

It comes a fortnight after the Mirror revealed TV presenter Fiona Phillips has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 62. She is now taking part in a clinical trial of a third drug.

Dr Richard Oakley, associate director at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “After 20 years with no new Alzheimer’s disease drugs in the UK, we now have two potential new drugs in 12 months.

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"This could be the beginning of the end for Alzheimer’s disease.”

Sam Elliott-Gibbs