english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > Archives : 2011 > The 2010 Prescrire Drug Awards: significant progress in 2010, but only for a few patients

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The 2010 Prescrire Drug Awards: significant progress in 2010,
but only for a few patients

The 2010 Prescrire Awards include 1 drug  placed on the "Honours List", 2 others deemed "noteworthy", but none worthy of Prescrire’s "Pilule d’Or" ("Golden Pill").

The annual Awards are based on Prescrire’s evaluation, carried out over the preceding year, of available evidence on new drugs that have received marketing approval or new therapeutic indications granted for existing drugs. Through a rigorous sifting process, drugs are ranked according to the degree of therapeutic progress they offer: improved efficacy; fewer or less severe adverse effects (for a similar degree of efficacy); easier or safer administration.

As in 2008 and 2009, the 2010 Prescrire Awards do not include a “Pilule d’Or”, in other words there was no new drug deemed to represent  a decisive therapeutic breakthrough in a field where patients and health professionals lacked any   effective treatment.

The Awards include 1 drug placed on the Honours List: it offers a significant advance for some patients compared with treatments already available but which have certain limitations.  Two drugs were deemed "noteworthy" as they offer a modest improvement in patient care.

But, for several years now,  twenty or so new drugs that expose patients to unjustifiable risks have gained marketing approval, representing a backward step in each case.

A major overhaul is in order.

©Prescrire 1 March 2011

"The 2010 Prescrire Awards" Prescrire Int 2010 ; 20 (114): 79-82. (Pdf, free)

> Click here for the online Dossier "Prescrire Awards"

 
Download the 2010
Prescrire Awards
 
See also:
 
The Prescrire Awards