LONDON - The first ever drug found to slow Alzheimer’s disease will not be funded by the NHS, the health service’s drugs watchdog has said.

On Thursday morning safety regulators gave the drug lecanemab the green light, meaning that patients in the early stages of the disease will be eligible to purchase the medication.

The drug has been hailed as “the beginning of the end” after trials found it slowed cognitive decline by 27 per cent in sufferers.

But in draft guidance the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said the benefits of lecanemab were too small to justify its costs.

Lecanemab was approved for use in the United States last year at a cost of $26,500 – meaning a cost of around £20,000 a year.

It is estimated around 70,000 adults in England would have been eligible for treatment with lecanemab.

Treatment only available privately

The decision is set to prompt fierce rows, and means the treatment will only be available for those who purchase the drugs privately.

David Thomas, head of policy, at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said he believed the costs to obtain the drug privately would be “cost prohibitive for all but the most wealthy of individuals” because the price would include infusion and monitoring, on top of drug costs.

Charities criticised the failure of Nice to take into account the costs of the drugs to society, in reducing the burden on carers.

Nice said its independent committee found that lecanemab was the first medicine to be licensed in the UK that has been shown to slow down progression of the disease, by between four and six months.