The Prescrire Drug Awards focus on products evaluated during the previous year in the New Products section of our French edition (issues 279 to 290 in 2007).
PILULE D'OR / GOLDEN PILL
|
The "Golden Pill" award is granted to drugs that provide a major therapeutic advance in a field in which no effective treatment was previously available. |
carglumic acid |
CARBAGLU°
Orphan Europe |
Five years of follow-up of about 20 patients showed that oral carglumic acid ensures normal long-term survival of children with a rare fatal urea cycle disorder (Prescrire International
n° 94) |
HONOURS LIST
|
The following drugs (in alphabetical order of international nonproprietary names) provide a clear advantage for some patients, in comparison to existing therapeutic options, albeit with certain limitations: |
imatinib |
GLIVEC°
Novartis |
Chronic myeloid leukaemia (with longer follow-up) (la revue Prescrire n° 290) |
trastuzumab |
HERCEPTIN°
Roche |
Adjuvant treatment of some forms of breast cancer (Prescrire International n° 89) |
NOTEWORTHY |
The following drugs (in alphabetical order of international nonproprietary names) made a modest contribution to patient care: |
artemether + lumefantrin |
RIAMET°
Novartis |
Treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria attacks (Prescrire International n° 94) |
darunavir |
PREZISTA°
Janssen-Cilag |
HIV infection after failure of multiple antiretroviral drug regimens (la revue Prescrire n° 289) |
levetiracetam |
KEPPRA°
UCB |
Myoclonic epilepsy from age 12 years (la revue Prescrire n° 287) |
methotrexate |
MÉTHOTREXATE BELLON°
Sanofi Aventis |
Psoriatic rheumatism (Prescrire International n° 91) |
triamcinolone
(hexacetonide)
(intra-articular)
|
HEXATRIONE°
Daiichi Sankyo |
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (Prescrire International n° 92) |
papillomavirus 6,11,16,18 vaccine |
GARDASIL°
Sanofi Pasteur MSD |
Prevention of high-grade cervical dysplasia (Prescrire International n° 89) |
SPECIAL MENTION |
meningococcal B vaccine strain 44/76 |
MenBvac° |
Approved under exceptional circumstances by the French Health Ministry and manufactured by the Norwegian National Institute of Public Health (la revue Prescrire n° 288). |
©Prescrire April 2008
Source: Prescrire Int 2008; 17 (94): 75. |