Prescgere magazine publishes its list of “more dangerous than useful” drugs

Each year, the independent medical journal Prescgere unveils its blacklist of drugs to avoid. In his review for 2020, he added ten drugs to his list. In all, it has 112 banned drugs, of which 93 are marketed in France. According to the review, most of these products are more dangerous than useful.

Ten drugs added to the blacklist of products to avoid

This year, Prescgere magazine added the following drugs to its blacklist of products to avoid: Propecia, Nootropyl, Spravato, Elidel, Evenity, Mobic, canagliflozin, dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, and ertugliflozin. It should be noted that meloxicam (Mobic), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, was added to the blacklist following an oversight during the establishment of the previous edition of the report.

Prescribe specifies in his report that some drugs that appear on his blacklist are not fatal but have effects that are disproportionate to the disorders being treated. IS ” active drugs, but which, taking into account the clinical situation, expose to risks that are disproportionate to the benefits they bring; old medicines whose use is obsolete, because other newer medicines have a more favorable risk / benefit ratio; recent drugs, whose risk / benefit ratio is less favorable than that of older drugs; or drugs whose efficacy beyond that of a placebo is not proven and which expose to particularly serious side effects. “

Dangerous drugs

In his case, finasteride 1 mg (Propecia), a drug to treat androgenetic alopecia in men, would expose patients to side effects that are disproportionate to its poor efficacy. Used to treat diabetes, glyflozins have been added to the discard list. They have been authorized in the European Union for about ten years. However, their ” unfavorable risk / benefit ratio It has been confirmed over the years.

Three drugs have also been added to the list that show some effectiveness, but whose side effects are disproportionate or which can simply be replaced by less dangerous solutions. The first is esketamine nasal spray solution (Spravato), which is used to treat so-called resistant depression. The second is pimecrolimus (Elidel), used for the treatment of atopic eczema. The last is romosozumab (Evenity), which is used in severe postmenopausal osteoporosis.

According to the independent medical journal, his goal is ” help to choose quality care, not harm patients and avoid disproportionate harm “.