journal articles
A PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF A POTENTIAL PROGRAM FOR THE PRIMARY PREVENTION OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Soeren Mattke, Jiahe Chen, Eric M Reiman
INTRODUCTION: We evaluated the potential cost-effectiveness of a hypothetical primary prevention screening and treatment program to avert the biological and clinical onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in cognitively unimpaired older adults.
METHODS: This hypothetical program would use an amyloid plaque-clearing antibody therapy monthly in the first six months and annually thereafter in cognitively unimpaired 55–79 year-old APOE4 carriers and 60–79 year-old non-carriers with a negative AD blood test (sensitivity and specificity of 0.9), averting the onset of moderately frequent neuritic amyloid plaques by 75 %. Lifetime hypothetical treatment outcomes were compared to natural history outcomes to estimate cost-effectiveness.
RESULTS: The program would be cost-effective up to a per-dose price of $1173 in APOE4 carriers and $307 in non-carriers or a lifetime cost of $20,167 and $5146, respectively.
DISCUSSION: Primary AD prevention could be cost-effective in older adults, especially in those at higher risk. Our findings and assumptions need to be confirmed with actual data.
CITATION:
Soeren Mattke ; Jiahe Chen ; Eric M Reiman (2025): A preliminary economic evaluation of a potential program for the primary prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease (JPAD). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjpad.2025.100334