english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > 100 most recent > • Decline in vigilance: beware of collateral damage(s)

Spotlight

Every month, the subjects in Prescrire’s Spotlight.

100 most recent :  1 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90

• Decline in vigilance: beware of collateral damage(s)

April Fool'sIn your dreams! Lulled by far too much information swirling around us day and night, it's no wonder we sometimes have trouble distinguishing between dreams and reality. So much so that one could almost believe a drug company would actually take the initiative to limit, and to pay for, the damage caused by one of its products. But that would be living in a dream world.

april fool's! A pharmaceutical company that acts of its own accord to request the withdrawal of the marketing authorisation for a dangerous drug, offers voluntarily to pay damages to patients, and even provides Prescrire's editors with full clinical data, well that would certainly be a dream come true. As of 1 April 2018, it is definitely more dream than reality. 

And yes, our "News Flash" announcing a French company's demand that the marketing authorisation for "tripoliponumab" be withdrawn was, in fact, an April fool's prank. Poisson d'avril !

36 years of "fishy business" in April
The traditional April prank by Prescrire's editors serves as an annual "booster shot" to remind us all that in the serious business of medical information, it pays to exercise critical judgement at all times.

In April 1983 Prescrire's "special correspondent" revealed to enthralled readers the enormous interest of protryptophane in the treatment of acute senility... And ever since, the experiment has been repeated yearly in La revue Prescrire's April issue.

And on a few occasions, Prescrire's "April fish" (as the seasonal pranks are known in France) have even made it into the English edition, Prescrire International. One of these is included below, in this sampling of Prescrire's yearly "Poissons d'avril".

Greatest hits from Prescrire's annual "Poisson d'avril" prank

©Prescrire 1 April 2018