When you have cancer in France, you are covered 100%, unlike the United States. But that’s not quite true, according to information from the Parisianwhich reports cases of patients treated with innovative cancer drugsapproved by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but rejected by the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) and therefore not reimbursed.
The cancer drugs referred to are targeted therapies and immunotherapies dedicated to cancers resulting from genetic mutations. They treat lots of cancers by “attacking the altered gene”, explains a pulmonologist from the Léon-Bérard center in Lyon, to Le Parisien.
These therapies are used in clinical trials and acclaimed to improve survival, treat patients who would have little chance of being cured without these options, but also improve the quality of life of patients with fewer side effects, and very interesting end results. They have been validated upstream, but the HAS considers that it does not have enough data to grant them reimbursement..
Spectacular drugs not reimbursed
This is the case of selpercatinib, used to block a gene responsible for a certain type of lung cancer, which affects, in the example given by the Parisian, a 72-year-old man with an irreproachable lifestyle. The drug is estimated to be 84% effective by a worldwide studyhe has access to it thanks to a clinical trial.
Another example: Suzanne, 43, lung cancer and metastases to the liver, bones, brain. His cancer is also due to a genetic mutation. Her condition is at its lowest when she is integrated into the clinical trial which gives her access to entrectinib, and which two years later leads a normal life. But the HAS refuses to take charge of them, which drives the doctors to despair, explaining that treatment with chemo (which is covered for him) does not give the patient the same chances at all.
This refusal to reimburse is seen by Jean-Yves Blay, oncologist and president of Unicancer, as “a sort, a selection, an inequality. And that contributes to the decadence of French research”, he annoys with the daily. For its part, the HAS advocates security and says it is ready to review its decision if more data reaches it.
Source: Le Parisien, February 8, 2023.
