{"id":3327,"date":"2026-07-20T17:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/?p=3327"},"modified":"2026-07-20T17:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:45:19","slug":"new-alzheimers-drug-leqembi-now-available-as-weekly-at-home-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/new-alzheimers-drug-leqembi-now-available-as-weekly-at-home-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"New Alzheimer\u2019s Drug Leqembi Now Available as Weekly At-Home Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eisai and Biogen, two pharmaceutical companies, have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA<\/a>) for a new way to start treatment with the Alzheimer<\/a>\u2019s drug Leqembi (pronounced “leh-KEM-bee”), now sold under the name Leqembi Iqlik. This update allows patients to begin treatment with a weekly injection at home instead of needing to go to a clinic for an IV infusion. <\/p>\n

Leqembi Iqlik is given using a simple autoinjector device, which patients or their caregivers can use to deliver the medicine<\/a> just under the skin. The starting dose is 500 milligrams once a week, which is given as two smaller injections of 250 milligrams each. Each injection takes about 15 seconds. After 18 months of treatment\u2014whether through IV or injection\u2014patients can switch to a maintenance dose of 360 milligrams once a week. Importantly, patients can continue their treatment with either IV infusions or subcutaneous (under-the-skin) injections throughout their therapy and even switch between the two methods if needed.<\/p>\n

This drug is approved for adults in the U.S. who have early-stage Alzheimer\u2019s disease, which means they may experience mild memory loss, increased confusion, or trouble finding the right words. These symptoms can be subtle at first but gradually become more noticeable over time.<\/p>\n

The approval of the at-home injection option is backed by clinical studies that compared the effects of subcutaneous injections to IV infusions. These studies showed that the exposure to the drug in the body from weekly injections was similar to that from IV treatment. This means the drug works just as well and provides the same benefits in reducing Alzheimer\u2019s-related brain changes. Side effects, such as swelling in the brain (called ARIA-E), are expected to be similar to those seen with IV treatment, and there is no increased risk of another type of bleeding in the brain (ARIA-H) compared to a placebo. Some patients may experience mild reactions at the injection site, but serious reactions throughout the body are rare.<\/p>\n

Howard Fillit, a leading expert and co-founder of the Alzheimer\u2019s Drug Discovery Foundation, shared his thoughts on this approval: “This new way to start treatment with Leqembi Iqlik is a big step forward in Alzheimer\u2019s care. For the first time, patients and their families have a real choice in how they receive this important treatment. As more treatment options become available, innovations like this will help make care more accessible, allow for future combination therapies, and support personalized treatment plans for Alzheimer\u2019s patients.”<\/p>\n

The new subcutaneous injection also means patients can receive their first dose at home, which could reduce the need for frequent clinic visits. This change may help ease the burden on clinics by reducing the time and resources needed for IV treatments while still making sure patients who prefer or need IV therapy have access to it. <\/p>\n

In a study about the autoinjector\u2019s ease of use, 94% of patients and caregivers who tried the device reported that it was simple to use and expressed high satisfaction and confidence in using it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eisai and Biogen, two pharmaceutical companies, have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pharmaceutical-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3333,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions\/3333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}