Eisai has partnered with CaringKind to expand its nutritional support efforts for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
A Japanese pharmaceutical company has developed a “Magnolia Meals at Home” service for cancer patients. Through this program, Eisai will provide home meal delivery for up to two months to eligible cancer patients and their families in areas close to its U.S. offices. As of January, the company had served more than 160,000 meals and enrolled more than 5,400 patients.
Biogen and Eisai, which sells the Alzheimer’s disease drug Rekenbi, expanded the program in collaboration with ADRD care experts from CaringKind. Through Magnolia Meals at Home for ADRD, Eisai provides guidance on brain-healthy diets, changing nutritional needs as the disease progresses, and recipes.
Eisai has been using the “Magnolia Meals at Home” branding it developed for its cancer services, but ADRD’s initiative is a different proposition. Cancer’s Magnolia Meals at Home website focuses on meal delivery programs and asks visitors to enter their zip code to see if the service is available in their area. The ADRD website focuses on tools and meal ideas to make your daily life easier and maintain your dignity.
The expansion of the program reflects evidence of the role nutrition plays in ADRD. A randomized clinical trial of more than 2,100 older adults at risk for cognitive decline and dementia found that a structured lifestyle intervention led to significant and statistically significant improvements in overall cognition over two years. A diet rich in whole grains, legumes, olive oil, berries, and vegetables was part of the lifestyle intervention.
As ADRD progresses, a patient’s appetite and behavior may change. Although largely independent during the early stages of the disease, patients may begin to require daily assistance and reach a stage where swallowing and eating safety become a priority. Eisai’s website has advice for people at each stage.
The initiative covers key therapeutic areas for Eisai, which recently predicted (PDF) that sales of Requembi will increase from 88 billion yen ($550 million) in 2025 to 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in 2028.
