While on the 250,000 abortions performed each year in France, 54% are medicated, six professors of gynecology sound the alarm about an abortion pill put on the market when it has not benefited from appropriate clinical trials. Israel Nisand, from Strasbourg University Hospital, Philippe Descamps d’Angers, Hervé Fernandez de Bicêtre, Aubert Agostini from Marseille, Jean-Louis Benifla and Bruno Carbonne from Trousseau in Paris wrote a letter to the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, than Le Figaro procured.
The drug that is attracting so much attention is Miffee, from the French laboratory Linepharma. “The problem,” explains the daily, “is that from a regulatory point of view, Miffee can only be prescribed in combination with another drug, gemeprost. Small concern: gemeprost is no longer used in France because of its side effects (it causes pain). ” The pill will therefore be prescribed with other drugs, without having undergone clinical trials to verify that this combination is not without risks.
Indeed, the drug chosen to replace gemeprost would be misoprostol (Cytotec), an anti-ulcer drug from the American Pfizer. “This means that women wishing to have an abortion risk being prescribed a combination of two drugs that have not been marketed for abortion,” remark Le Figaro. However, the High Authority for Health (HAS) reimburses the Miffee at 65%, the maximum rate of Social Security.
“At a time when the public authorities, in particular through warnings from the Medicines Agency, are exerting unprecedented pressure on health professionals to strictly comply with the conditions for marketing authorization, it seems inconceivable that a report issued by a government agency (the HAS) is marked with such lightness “, write the six professors.
