Medicare is spending far less than expected on new Alzheimer’s drugs Complicated use and uncertain benefits of Leqembi and Kisunla stunt uptake

https://www.statnews.com/2026/05/11/medicare-spending-less-than-expected-alzheimers-drugs-leqembi-kisunla/ By Bob HermanMay 11, 2026 Bob Herman is the author of Health Care Inc., an award-winning weekly newsletter about the business of health and medicine. Alzheimer's drug rollouts fall far below expectations Two years after Medicare officials warned that new Alzheimer’s drugs could cost the program billions, uptake of the medicines Leqembi and Kisunla have been strikingly muted, STAT’s Bob Herman writes. Medicare spent just a few hundred million dollars on the drugs through most of 2025 — a fraction of early projections — as patients and physicians grapple with complicated infusion schedules, repeated brain imaging requirements, and bleeding risks. Beyond that, there are lingering doubts about whether the treatments produce meaningful real-world benefits. "There’s no way to know," one neurologist said. "There’s no way you can judge progress with a drug that slows worsening. You can see people stabilize, but if they get worse at a slower rate, how the hell do you know?"