LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Medicines Agency approved the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi on Thursday, saying it was the first drug to show some effect in slowing the progression of the neurodegenerative disease.

But the UK government is unlikely to cover the cost after an independent agency issued separate draft guidance concluding that the benefits of Leqembi “cannot be considered to represent good value for money for the taxpayer”.

In addition to the drug’s cost, administration of Leqembi requires patients to be hospitalized every two weeks and closely monitored for side effects. Experts also pointed to the lack of data on the long-term effectiveness of Leqembi, which is manufactured by Japanese drugmaker Eisai.

“The reality is that the benefit of this first treatment is simply too small to justify the significant cost,” said Dr Samantha Robers, chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

The draft guidance issued by NICE will now be open for public consultation and all responses will be considered at a second meeting later this year before a final recommendation is issued.

The agency estimates that around 70,000 people in the UK could benefit from Leqembi. The drug can still be prescribed if patients pay for it privately. In the US, it costs around $26,000 per patient per year.

Some experts said that while they understood that patients and their families were disappointed by the news, there was hope that better drugs could be developed soon.

Hilary Evans-Newton, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said Leqembi is “the beginning of a fundamental shift in how diseases like Alzheimer’s will be treated in the future.” She said there are currently over 160 trials underway worldwide testing over 125 experimental treatments for Alzheimer’s.

“Despite today’s frustrating news, it is really just a question of when, not if, new treatments will become available,” she said in a statement.

Others feared that the differing decisions of the UK regulator and health authority could lead to further divisions in the healthcare system.

“This will lead to greater injustices for people with dementia, as only those who have access to private health insurance will be able to receive the drug,” said Tara Spire Jones, director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Leqembi in July last year, paving the way for Medicare and other health insurers to cover the treatment.

Last month, the European Medicines Agency recommended that Leqembi not be approved across the EU, arguing that the drug’s effectiveness in slowing cognitive decline did not outweigh serious side effects such as swelling and possible brain bleeding.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. All content is the responsibility of the AP.

Maria Cheng, The Associated Press