No public plan covers the drug and Bayer will not name a price
A non-hormonal treatment for hot flashes and night sweats in breast cancer patients has cleared Health Canada, and no public plan is paying for it.
Elinzanetant, sold as Lynkuet and manufactured by Bayer, took effect as an expanded market authorization on Friday, CTV News reported, citing Health Canada's drug database.
A Bayer spokesperson told the news outlet on Monday that the drug is not publicly funded in Canada and did not provide a price.
Health Canada first approved elinzanetant in July 2025 for vasomotor symptoms in menopause, then broadened the authorization to cover women on endocrine therapy for breast cancer.
That group cannot take hormone replacement therapy, and symptoms are severe enough that some patients stop taking their cancer medication for relief, Christine Brezden-Masley, medical director of the cancer program at Sinai Health in Toronto, told CTV News.
Brezden-Masley receives compensation as a consultant to Bayer.
Bayer's OASIS-4 study followed 395 women aged 18 to 70 over 52 weeks, CTV News reported, with participants required to be experiencing at least 35 moderate to severe hot flashes or night sweats a week.
Results showed a significant decrease in symptoms and fewer sleep disturbances against placebo, and 91.6 percent of participants chose to continue on the drug for another two years.
An estimated 32,400 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, with 13 percent of cases diagnosed between the ages of 40 and 49.
The society's 2024 special report on the economic impact of cancer put the average lifetime cost to a patient at nearly $33,000 in out-of-pocket expenses and lost income, as Benefits and Pensions Monitor previously reported, and projected out-of-pocket costs to climb almost 20 percent over the next decade.
Menopausal symptoms carry a separate measured cost.
The Menopause Foundation of Canada, with economic analysis by Deloitte Canada, attributed roughly 540,000 lost work days and $237m in lost employer productivity each year to unmanaged symptoms, alongside $3.3bn in lost income for women.
Claims data shows demand rising: hormone replacement therapy use in iA Financial Group's group insurance portfolio grew 37 percent between 2021 and 2024, the insurer reported — a therapy unavailable to the patients elinzanetant is now authorized to treat
