The news appeared this Friday the 13th: to treat the dependence of people who are victims of alcohol, baclofen is now reimbursed. “A big step forward for patients”, here are the terms used by the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine.
According to Marisol Touraine, this right to reimbursement is finally a response to a major public health concern. Indeed, excessive alcohol consumption is increasingly problematic. With this new decree, currently, only France recognizes this treatment in its effectiveness in the fight against alcoholism.
Baclofen has been on the market since 1975. Basically, this treatment was intended for muscle contractures and could be reimbursed. That said, this did not prevent its prescription outside the legal indication, to treat alcoholism, it was then a prescription without marketing authorization (AMM).
There are many treatments on the market that are aimed at treating alcohol dependence problems. However, their effectiveness has turned out to be almost nil. This is why this drug created a surprise in March 2014, since it is the first to have benefited from a temporary recommendation for use (RTU) before its marketing authorization (AMM). As the prescription was assessed by the health professional, it had to be carried out according to a regulatory framework. The latter could finally be done frankly, within the limits of the diagnosis, and legally.
“Although widespread, the use of Baclofen in this capacity was until now neither recognized nor supervised”
The choice of this decree follows a constant worrying in the face of the increase in excessive alcohol consumption. According to a study published by the Gustave-Roussy Institute, in France alcohol is responsible for 49,000 deaths per year.
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