FDA approves Alzheimer's drug Leqembi, paves way for Medicaid coverage

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – The Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi.

It’s a landmark decision for the first medicine proven to slow the course of the memory-robbing disease.

Full approval prompts the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to change how it covers the drug, broadening access for up to about a million people with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Leqembi got accelerated approval in January. But it hasn’t been widely used because of an earlier coverage decision by CMS, which provides insurance for many elderly Alzheimer’s patients through Medicare.

Without insurance, it costs more than $26,000 a year.