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Long-Term Memantine Associated with Significant Cost Reductions in Advanced Alzheimer's: Presented at IADRD

By Peggy Peck
Special to DG News

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- July 22, 2002 -- Among patients with advanced Alzheimer's disease, long-term treatment with memantine is associated with a significant reduction in direct medical costs and facilities costs, according to results reported here on July 21st at the 8th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders.

Lead author Anders Wimo, MD/PhD, associate professor, division of geriatric epidemiology, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden, said this is the first study that demonstrates an economic benefit associated with a specific treatment. In an interview with Doctor's Guide, Wimo said the savings "are best illustrated by lower costs for caregivers. The caregivers of patients treated with memantine saved an average of $824 a month. This reflects a lower level of institutionalization."

Beyond savings to individual caregivers, "society saved an average of $1,234 [per month] for each patient treated with memantine compared to costs associated with patients on placebo," Dr. Wimo added.

Memantine, a moderate-affinity uncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, is currently approved in Germany for treatment of dementia, and the European Union's Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products has recommended approval for treatment of moderately severe to severe Alzheimer's disease.

The 28-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study enrolled 256 patients with advanced Alzheimer's disease, determined by Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) Stages 5 and 6, Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) scores of 6a or higher, and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) range 3-14.

Primary end points were resource utilization, residential status, and costs. Resource use and residential status were tracked using the Resource Utilization in Dementia (RUD) questionnaire, and an average unit cost was assigned to each relevant resource utilization variable.

According to multivariate analyses of 166 patients with no missing values across the study period, treatment with memantine was associated with a significant reduction in average monthly caregiver time compared with placebo (-51.5 hours; p=0.02). The incidence of institutionalization at week 28 was also significantly lower in the memantine group compared with the placebo group (p=0.04).

Merz Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures memantine, funded the study.

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