Medicare Agency Won’t Pay for Eli Lilly Imaging Drug for Alzheimer’s Diagnoses

In another sales-sapping blow to Eli Lilly and Co., the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided not to pay for patient use of a
Lilly imaging drug used in Alzheimer’s assessments. The Indianapolis drugmaker
said that it’s disappointed in the decision, which it called “contrary to
expert opinion.” The CMS decision is a financial blow to Lilly’s Amyvid, a new
drug marketed for use in brain scans to evaluate patients for Alzheimer’s
disease and other brain dysfunctions. Approved by the Food and Drug
Administration last year, Amyvid is the only drug of its kind on the market. In
a long, heavily footnoted “decision memo,” the CMS, which runs the sprawling
federal Medicaid and Medicare health systems for the elderly and poor, said it
has concluded that there is no good evidence that imaging agents such as Amylid
provide much help in diagnosing brain diseases.

Source/more: Indianapolis Star