{"id":341473,"date":"2025-12-13T00:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T00:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/341473\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T00:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T00:03:07","slug":"quebec-will-not-cover-health-canada-approved-alzheimers-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/341473\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebec will not cover Health Canada-approved Alzheimer\u2019s drug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A scientist looks at scans at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. The Health Canada-approved drug, lecanemab, slows progression of Alzheimer\u2019s disease by 27 per cent on average, according to the main clinical trial that led to regulatory approval.DENIS BALIBOUSE\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Quebec will not publicly fund the first Health Canada-approved treatment<\/a> for the underlying cause of Alzheimer\u2019s disease<\/a> after an expert committee concluded its benefits are too modest to improve patients\u2019 lives. <\/p>\n

The negative recommendation from Quebec\u2019s National Institute for Excellence in Health and Social Services, known by the French acronym INESSS, marks the first time a government advisory body in Canada has evaluated whether the medication, lecanemab, should be paid for out of the public purse. <\/p>\n

The experts at INESSS rejected the drug without considering its price because they concluded lecanemab didn\u2019t pass the first test of providing clear therapeutic value. <\/p>\n

Lecanemab, which sells under the brand name Leqembi, will have a sticker price of about $32,000 a year in Canada, according to drugmaker Eisai Co. Ltd. <\/p>\n

Excitement around Alzheimer\u2019s treatment tempered by questions about efficacy, accessibility<\/a><\/p>\n

According to INESSS\u2019s notice to Quebec\u2019s health minister<\/a>, posted Thursday: \u201cThe gains observed with lecanemab on cognitive and functional decline (e.g., memory, self-care, judgment) in a clinical trial are limited and below what is generally considered clinically significant. Furthermore, there is no demonstrated improvement in quality of life.\u201d <\/p>\n

The notice said the government accepted INESSS\u2019s advice and won\u2019t reimburse the drug. <\/p>\n

Lecanemab may yet be publicly funded elsewhere in the country. Canada\u2019s Drug Agency, which advises provinces outside Quebec, is scheduled to release a draft recommendation for the drug in February. <\/p>\n

INESSS\u2019s negative ruling will come as a blow to Quebec patients, doctors and advocacy groups who hoped public coverage of lecanemab would help people in the early stages of Alzheimer\u2019s stave off their inevitable decline for a time. <\/p>\n

Health Canada approved the drug<\/a> in October for patients with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer\u2019s disease who have confirmed buildup of a sticky substance called amyloid \u2013 which is linked to the disease \u2013 in the brain, and who do not carry two copies of a gene that raises the risk of rare but serious side effects, including brain swelling and bleeding.<\/p>\n

Lecanemab does not cure or halt the decline in thinking and memory caused by Alzheimer\u2019s. Rather, it slows progression of the disease by 27 per cent on average, allowing some patients to stay in the mild stage for longer, according to the main clinical trial that led to regulatory approval. <\/p>\n

Howard Chertkow, a neurologist and senior scientist at the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education in Toronto, said he worried that INESSS is \u201cusing a bit of a sledgehammer,\u201d by issuing a blanket rejection of the medication, which is given intravenously every two weeks. <\/p>\n

Alzheimer\u2019s is a heterogeneous disease, he added. That means some patients will respond well to lecanemab, while others won\u2019t see any positive effects. Now, however, the only Quebec patients able to find out will be the wealthy, Dr. Chertkow added. <\/p>\n

The costs for individuals, and for the public health care system if other provinces eventually cover lecanemab, go beyond the price of the drug itself. <\/p>\n

Explainer: What is Alzheimer\u2019s disease, and what are the symptoms and treatments for the condition?<\/a><\/p>\n

Patients would need a PET scan or spinal fluid test to confirm the presence of amyloid, as well as genetic testing and frequent MRIs in the first year to check for swelling and microbleeds in the brain. <\/p>\n

Laveena Kamboj, senior director, value access and policy at Eisai Canada, said the pharmaceutical company was \u201cprofoundly disappointed\u201d by the INESSS rejection. <\/p>\n

\u201cINESSS reached a fundamentally different conclusion on Leqembi\u2019s benefit-risk profile when compared to Health Canada,\u201d she said, emphasizing the federal regulator spent two and a half years reviewing the drug. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Ms. Kamboj said lecanemab will be available in Canada starting next month for those who have private insurance coverage or the money to pay out of pocket. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A scientist looks at scans at the Memory Centre at the Department of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-341473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}