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Prescrire's Drug Awards for 2016 recognise two cancer drugs

Palmarès des médicaments de Prescrire Independent French medical journal Prescrire announced its Drug Awards in Paris on 26 January 2017.  There were no additions to the "Honours List" and no "Pilule d'Or" ("Golden Pill") awarded this year, but two cancer drugs were deemed "Noteworthy".


The Prescrire Drug Awards are compiled at the end of each year, based on the reviews published that year in our French edition, and taking into account any new data made available since the initial articles were published. These awards honour drugs that constitute a therapeutic advance, in that they offer better efficacy, less frequent or less severe adverse effects (for similar efficacy), or safer or easier administration.

The Prescrire Editorial Staff conduct these analyses free from any industry or institutional influence. Our independence is made possible by the fact that we are financed exclusively by our subscribers, carry no paid advertising in either the French or the English edition, and receive no grants or subsidies of any kind.

Two of the products featured in the New Products section of our French edition in 2016 earned a Prescrire Drug Award this year. The two awards were for cancer drugs Prescrire's editors deemed "Noteworthy":

  • Nivolumab (Opdivo°) as monotherapy for some patients with melanoma or lung cancer;
  • Trametinib (Mekinist°) combined with dabrafenib for some patients with melanoma.

These drugs have been shown to prolong survival by a few months on average, but with many serious adverse effects and a few that are sometimes fatal.

None of the new products examined constituted a sufficient therapeutic advance to warrant a "Pilule d'Or" (Golden Pill) Award or even a place on the "Honours List".

> The Prescrire Awards for 2016 (Free)

©Prescrire 1 February 2017

"The Prescrire Awards 2016" Prescrire Int 2017; 26 (180): 79-83. Pdf, free
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