the food and drug administration on friday granted an accelerated approval to eisai and biogen’s alzheimer’s disease treatment which showed in clinical trials that it can slow the progression of the disease uslisted shares of eisai esaly rallied 94 after the news was announced on friday afternoon biogen’s biib stock was halted at the time of publication the drug lecanemab is now called leqembi and will cost 26500 a year according to an eisai spokesperson it’s the second drug in a category of amyloid plaqueclearing medicines to receive fda approval biogen and eisai also brought to market that therapy but aduhelm failed to gain traction in the clinic after its controversial accelerated approval in 2021 “the approval of leqembi provides new hope to patients with alzheimer’s disease” biogen ceo christopher viehbacher said in an emailed statement “patients at an early stage of the disease and their caregivers can now consider a new treatment option with their doctors” leqembi is approved for patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia the fda said an accelerated approval is a type of quick approval used to commercialize treatments when there is an unmet need eisai has said plans to seek full approval of leqembi early this year eisai’s stock has gained 186 over the past year while biogen’s shares are up 185 the sp 500 spx has declined 190 over the past 12 months