Two Alzheimer’s experts with opposing viewpoints on Aduhelm

This week’s “First Opinion Podcast” is a special two-part episode focusing on the controversial — some say inflammatory — FDA decision to approve aducanumab, an Alzheimer’s drug developed by Biogen that will be marketed as Aduhelm. In these two episodes, I talk with two Alzheimer’s experts with vastly different viewpoints on the news: Dennis Selkoe, a physician and scientist whose research is at the core of how Aduhelm works; and Jason Karlawish, an Alzheimer’s physician who does not believe the drug is ready to be approved.

Selkoe wrote a First Opinion in 2019 on how research on aducanumab could “open the floodgates” for other, possibly better, Alzheimer’s therapies. The headline of Karlawish’s First Opinion, published a week before the long-awaited FDA decision, succinctly captured his stance: “If the FDA approves Biogen’s Alzheimer’s treatment, I won’t prescribe it.”

For even more coverage of the Biogen news, listen to the latest episode of “The Readout LOUD.”

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