Canada approves expensive new drug that can slow Alzheimer’s disease – CTV
October 27, 2025
Health Canada has approved an expensive new drug that can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
While existing medications treat Alzheimer’s symptoms, lecanemab is the first drug authorized in Canada that targets the disease’s underlying cause.
“We’ve had symptom-based therapies, but they aren’t doing anything to intervene in the underlying disease,” Sunnybrook Hospital neurologist Dr. Sara Mitchell previously told CTV News. “For these patients to even hear that there is a possibility of new treatments, to hear that we are making progress … is really a beacon of hope.”
Canadian patients could be receiving their first doses of lecanemab by the end of 2025. In the U.S., where it has already been approved, the drug costs a staggering US$26,500 per year. Treatment also requires multiple MRIs to monitor for side effects.
It took more than two years for Health Canada to approve the drug, which was developed by Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Ltd. and U.S. biotechnology company Biogen Inc. Sold under the brand name Leqembi, Health Canada granted conditional authorization for the drug on Friday pending the results of trials to verify its clinical benefits.
