General practitioners urge the President to obtain an RTU for Avastin in the treatment of AMD. This drug is 30 times less expensive than the current treatment, Lucentis.
General practitioners absolutely want to be able to prescribe Avastin for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). To be authorized, the general medicine union (SMG) decided to send a open letter to the President of the Republic. He calls for an unblocking of the situation.
In March 2014, the Parisian indicated that the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, had submitted to the Council of State a draft decree concerning the anticancer drug Avastin (Roche). This drug was soon to be opened for the treatment of AMD, an eye disease that results from gradual deterioration of the macula, a small area in the center of the retina that allows you to see details and colors with precision. A more than interesting option for the French health system because this product offers an alternative and economical solution to Lucentis (Novartis), the only specialty authorized for the moment in this pathology. If the official treatment costs 900 € per injection, its “competitor” only asks for 30 €. By proposing this decree, the Minister of Health was actually forcing the Swiss laboratory Roche. The latter has not requested authorization for the prescription of Avastin in the treatment of AMD since 2012.
Are the health authorities complicit?
Faced with this ubiquitous situation, the general medicine union directly accuses the highest health authorities of complicity with laboratories. In their letter they confide: “Controlling health spending cannot be based on caregivers alone: the Administration still has to put its own money into it, that the policies play their role of spur. Now, what have we observed on recent, significant and highly symbolic examples? A large-scale looting, as shameless as it is organized – we weigh our words – of Social Security, by certain groups, benefiting, alas, from passivity, if not from the active complicity of the highest health authorities of this country. “
This attitude is all the more shocking given that France is currently experiencing a record deficit in the health branch of health insurance. In addition, the situation is not about to improve. Poor organization of care, costs of technical progress, aging of the population … By 2040, the health insurance deficit could even reach the bar of 40 billion euros, according to experts from the Top advice for the future of health insurance (HCAAM).
400 million euros “wasted” every year
“In the serious circumstances in France, it seems unthinkable to waste some 400 million euros a year in pure loss”, explains the union. He thus calls on the Head of State to use his “authority to put an end to obstructive maneuvers aimed at delaying the issuance of the decree for more than a year” authorizing RTUs (temporary recommendations for use) for economic reasons. As a result, the SMG immediately wishes to repeal the “circular of 11 July 2012 prohibiting the use of Avastin as a substitute for Lucentis. This is in order to allow Avastin to be prescribed as quickly as possible for the treatment of AMD.
An investigation for suspicion of an illicit agreement between Rocher and Novartis
Finally, among its other requests, the SMG requests that the Competition Authority be seized to open an investigation “on the suspicion of an illicit agreement between the Roche and Novartis groups, with a view to blocking the marketing of Avastin. in the form of an ophthalmological preparation. SMG recalls that the Italian Competition Authority has already imposed a record fine of 180 million euros on the two groups on the same file.
As a reminder, Lucentis is therefore at the top of the most reimbursed drugs. It is indeed the first item of Medicines expenditure for Medicare with € 389 million reimbursed in 2012 by Social Security and nearly 500 million in 2013.
The advantage of obtaining this RTU also presents a major benefit for patients, in terms of the effectiveness of the product but above all on the financial level. AMD affects one million French people.
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