(Yicai) June 24 -- Japan's Eisai and Massachusetts-based Biogen are preparing to shortly introduce lecanemab, the first drug for Alzheimer’s disease fully approved in the United States in more than two decades, to Chinese hospitals.

Lecanemab, marketed as Leqembi, is expected to be put into clinical use next week, the Tokyo-headquartered company told Yicai. The injectable medicine will be sent to hospitals after passing an imported drug test by the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, it added. 

Treatment will cost about CNY180,000 (USD24,800) per year as the new medicine is not yet covered by China's basic health insurance. In January, China's National Medical Products Administration approved Leqembi to be used to treat mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease. 

Leqembi will start a new era of early treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, an expert in the pharmaceutical industry told Yicai. The drug helps slow the progression of the disease as patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's usually only have five to six years of survival time.

Injecting Leqembi twice a month can slow the progression of early Alzheimer’s disease by 27 percent, according to clinical trial results.

The first batch of patients in China is expected to be 1,500, a spokesperson from Eisai said in February. However, access to treatment is predicted to be limited in the initial stage due to underdiagnosis, the firm said to Yicai.

Eisai estimates that China has about 17 million people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease but the development of new diagnostic methods, including blood tests, could increase the number of people who receive treatment.

Based on the USD26,500 cost of treatment per year, Leqembi can bring about USD7 billion in global sales by 2030, Eisai predicted.

Moreover, US-based Eli Lilly is developing a similar disease-modifying treatment called donanemab to address the root cause of the neurodegenerative disease. The American drug giant submitted a new drug marketing application to China's NMPA in October, and it was accepted.

Editor: Emmi Laine