They have transformed a fatal disease into a chronic disease. Arriving on the market in 1996, tritherapies have revolutionized the care of AIDS patients. If the daily intake of these molecules is not easy, as those who multiply risky practices sometimes imagine, patients nevertheless have a life expectancy equivalent to that of the general population. A normalization that announces another.
At the end of the year, explains Eric Favereau in Release, five molecules will be “genericables”. According to experts, the cost of treatment could drop by 60%. The United States have already done their accounts, specifies the journalist, it is more than a billion dollars which could be saved each year. A boon, claims the daily, but how will it be experienced by patients and the medical profession?
To find out, Dr Christine Jacomet, infectious disease specialist at the Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, carried out a study with 116 doctors from 33 hospitals and including 556 patients living for thirteen years with the virus. The switch to generic drugs will take place, analyze the specialists who presented their results on the 15the congress of the French Society for the Fight against AIDS (SFLS) which has just ended in Paris. It’s a 76% yes, on the patient side, but with several reservations.
First, it will take persuasion. The confidence index for these molecules is capped at 56%. Then the acceptance rate drops to 17% if this is to result in an increase in the number of tablets.
In fact, those who already use generics for other pathologies are the least reluctant in the context of tritherapies. And the doctor’s encouragement will be decisive for the others.
And in this area, the study conducted by Dr. Jacomet is instructive. Two thirds of infectiologists agree on the principle of prescribing copies, but a third would only do so if there are studies proving the equivalence of generics. “A funny request, underlines the daily, because it ignores that the generics present on the market have already met these requirements. »
A lack of knowledge that also surprises the author of the study: “There is this idea that generics would be less effective, and doctors and patients alike are not very aware of the economic advantages. “Nevertheless, concludes Eric Favereau, the switch to generics is inevitable. »
