Among the 5,000 drugs on sale in France, barely more than 150 are essential, according to a list drawn up by a dozen French doctors.
“Rationality and good practice”
Unveiled, in the April issue of the magazine Science and Life, this list establishes the essential drugs for the 18 major families of diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol, osteoarthritis or depression, observed in adults.
The group of doctors, supervised by Prof. Michel Thomas, internist at Bobigny hospital, drew on scientific literature and his own experience to establish this list. “Rationality and good practice are therefore the two pillars of these choices, and the members of the collective were not asked to take into account the price of the treatments,” Michel Thomas explained to Science and Life.
Exclude the dangerous and the unnecessary
This work “points to the best and, conversely, putting back the unnecessary or the dangerous ”, explains Science and Life. Thus, the most prescribed drugs do not always appear on the list. This is the case for rosuvastatin (Crestor) and atorvastine (Tahor) which are the stars of prescriptions against cholesterol but which do not present enough benefits according to the group of doctors. In addition, the new innovative treatments did not convince either. The diabetes molecules that hit the market in 2000 – gliptins – are not on the list. Also surprisingly, no treatment against Alzheimer’s disease has been retained.
According to the magazine, this list could inspire an official list of drugs established by the High Authority of Health (HAS). Indeed, the health law, debated in the National Assembly between the end of March and mid-April 2015, should include an article according to which the HAS will have to “develop and validate a list of drugs to be used preferentially by health professionals”.
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