French pharma lobby unveils €2 million plan to reduce medication misuse

France’s pharmaceutical lobby Leem unveiled a plan on Tuesday (4 June) to fight the misuse of medicines, thought to be responsible for several thousand deaths every year, particularly among the elderly.

To encourage “drug sobriety” and limit the consumption of drugs that are not necessary for patients, Leem is launching a €2 million action plan in the coming days.

The plan includes a communication campaign in the media and several measures to help general practitioners (GP), such as online training courses and a prescription assistance system.

According to Leem data, misuse of medicines is responsible for the hospitalisation of 200,000 people every year, and around ten thousand premature deaths.

“Over and above this public health problem, these potentially avoidable hospitalisations and deaths represent significant costs for health insurance and have an adverse impact on the environment”, said the Leem press release.

This phenomenon particularly affects the elderly. In France, according to the Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Maladie (CNAM), the national health insurance fund, almost half of people over 65 take at least five drugs a day.

“With more than five drugs, the risk of an adverse event occurring, due to drugs or their interactions, increases significantly,” Leem added.

The prescription assistance system will send a notification to the GP when a patient over 65 takes more than five drugs, inviting the doctor to “revise the prescription”, Leem said.

As well as being a public health issue, misuse of medicines is costly for the French social security system. According to Leem director Thierry Hulot, “sobriety in the use of medicines” could save the French health insurance system €300 million over a full year.

Drug consumption in France has fallen from 52 boxes per inhabitant per year in 2010 to 42 today.

Nevertheless, along with Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Greece, France is still one of Europe’s biggest spenders on pharmaceuticals, according to the 2023 health statistics of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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