Three months ago, the ANSM gave the green light to the temporary recommendation for the use of baclofen for alcohol addicts. Today, 2,200 patients are registered on the Agency’s Internet monitoring portal.
More than three months after launching a temporary recommendation for the use (RTU) of baclofen for alcoholic patients, the Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) is making a second review of the implementation of its electronic patient monitoring portal (www.rtubaclofene.org). “It’s rather a success,” she confided during a press point organized in April. Especially since the curve of doctors and patients adhering to the RTU, and registered on the site, was constantly increasing. An increase that the Agency hoped to confirm and amplify soon as patients already treated with baclofen register on the RTU portal. But today, it is clear that this good momentum is stalling slightly.
2,200 patients enrolled in three months
Because for the moment, only 850 doctors prescribing baclofen have already registered on this Internet portal. This is little compared to the more than 90,000 GPs in France, who most certainly have alcohol-dependent patients in their patients. In addition, just under half of these practitioners (44%) have not yet registered patients on the site. For the other half (56%), these doctors follow an average of 4 alcohol-dependent patients, the Agency indicated in April.
In the end, on the patient side, the ANSM database now has 2,200 registered alcohol patients.
Compared to the last report, it should therefore be noted that the increase is slight. By the end of April, 1,400 patients had signed up for patient monitoring via this portal on the net.
Only patients enrolling in the RTU will be reimbursed
Conclusion, the Agency is still struggling to convince health professionals to proceed with this rapid registration (2min) on its site since, according to health insurance, since 2008, more than 50,000 patients have been treated with baclofen and 7 000 doctors have prescribed it outside of a real legal framework.
Nevertheless, a recent announcement from the Ministry of Health may well reverse this trend. On June 13, the government published in the Official Journal a decree allowing reimbursement of baclofen as part of the treatment of alcohol dependence. Only patients registering for this secure use protocol via the specific electronic portal will be able to benefit from it, it was written in substance in the press release.
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