Self-testing and self-treating are becoming bigger trends in medicine, and now, you can conduct part of your treatment at home by yourself if you have Alzheimer’s disease.
On Aug. 30, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first at-home treatment for Alzheimer’s. Lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi—which the FDA approved in 2023 as the first medication to treat the memory disorder—is now available in a self-injecting pen, Leqembi Iqlik. People can use the pen to give themselves weekly maintenance doses of the drug. Lecanemab, made by Eisai and Biogen, was originally approved as an IV infusion that took about an hour and required patients to visit infusion clinics once a month. The at-home version is approved as a maintenance therapy that people can give themselves after they have finished a course of the infusion treatment.
“We think this is really going to change patient treatment,” says Lynn Kramer, chief clinical officer at Eisai.
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The self-injectable version works in a similar way to the auto-injector pens that deliver weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, and could make the Alzheimer’s drug accessible to more people. In January 2025, the FDA approved lecanemab for maintenance therapy, but patients still had to get the drug via infusion at infusion centers. Now, Iqlik will give people more flexibility to continue their treatment. Once they complete the initial treatment regimen over 18 months with the IV version of lecanemab, they can either continue to get an IV infusion of the maintenance dose or give themselves an injection—or switch back and forth, says Kramer. “One week after their last IV dose, they can start Iqlik injections once a week,” he says. “They could then continue with the IV therapy for maintenance; then, if they are going on vacation, they can convert to Iqlik.”
Continuing treatment with lecanemab is important for managing the disease, since the drug reduces buildup of the amyloid, in either plaques or protofibrils; protofibrils can be toxic to brain neurons and lead to tau accumulation, which can strangle and impair the function of these nerve cells. “Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease,” says Kramer. “It starts even before plaque development, and those pathophysiologic processes still occur even after you remove plaque. That’s the reason why maintenance therapy is required.”
In the study supporting Iqlik’s approval, Eisai and Biogen showed that among people with early Alzheimer’s disease who had completed 18 months of IV treatment and transitioned to the lower dose maintenance therapy, those giving themselves Iqlik weekly showed similar benefits in reducing amyloid buildup compared to those receiving the IV dose. The Iqlik users also showed similar rates of side effects—most importantly, a type of brain inflammation—as those receiving the IV maintenance.
For patients without insurance, the cost for a year’s supply of Iqlik will be $19,500 according to Eisai, compared to $13,316 for a year of the IV maintenance therapy. Medicare currently covers lecanemab if doctors enroll patients in a registry, and costs for those with Medicare Part D are capped at $2,000 annually.
