Kisunla – a crucial decision is drawing near for people with Alzheimer’s in Sweden

Sweden’s New Therapies Council (NT-rådet) is expected to decide in the coming months whether to recommend Kisunla for use in Swedish healthcare.

After this spring’s decision against Leqembi, there is a great deal at stake. Research shows that Kisunla can slow the progression of the disease. But how much is that effect worth, and what is the pharmaceutical company prepared to do about the price?

For the first time, the progression of the disease can be slowed

For many years, drug treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has mainly focused on relieving symptoms. With the new antibody drugs Leqembi and Kisunla, something fundamentally important has happened: it is now possible to influence the course of the disease itself.

Kisunla, whose active ingredient is donanemab, is an antibody that helps the body remove amyloid from the brain. Amyloid is a protein that accumulates in Alzheimer’s disease and is part of the disease process.

In the large phase 3 trial TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2, clinical decline was slowed by around 35 per cent over 18 months in patients with low or intermediate tau levels, as measured on the iADRS scale. Across the full study population, the effect was smaller, at around 22 per cent.

It is important to understand what these figures mean. The patients did not get better, and their memory did not improve by 35 per cent. Rather, their condition worsened more slowly than that of those who received a placebo.