english.prescrire.org > Annual Prescrire Awards > The Prescrire Awards for 2010 > The 2010 Prescrire Awards: chosen in all independence by Prescrire's Editorial staff > A look back at new drugs and new indications in 2010 > Overview

The Prescrire Awards for 2010

The 2010 Prescrire Awards: chosen in all independence by Prescrire's Editorial staff

A look back at new drugs and new indications in 2010
Overview

In 2010, we rated 97 new drugs or new indications in our French edition la revue Prescrire, only 4 of which provided a therapeutic advantage. However, 19 others (1 in 5) were approved despite having more harms than benefits.

More paediatric products were released in 2010 than in previous years, but few of them made any real difference and many had not been properly evaluated.

Drug regulatory agencies can protect patients from exposure to dangerous drugs by refusing to grant market approval or by demanding their market withdrawal. Yet they are failing to fulfil this responsibility: so-called risk management plans and modifications to the wording in the SPC are only half-measures.

Too often the authorities put companies’ short-term financial interests above patients’ well-being by granting premature marketing authorisation, by agreeing to high levels of reimbursement that fail to take added therapeutic value into account, and by allowing the development of “umbrella” ranges.

The European authorities’ questionable plans for pharmacovigilance and advertising of prescription-only drugs were restricted after public mobilisation, but they are still likely to undermine healthcare quality.

Decision-makers must make patients’ well-being their top priority.  

©Prescrire April 2011

"New drugs and indications in 2010: inadequate assessment; patients at risk" Prescrire Int 2011: 20 (115): 105-110. (Pdf, free)