The result of the procedure, launched in 2021, is debated among doctors and a request for extension, defended by the Ministry of Health, should be filed by means of examining the budget of the ” Social “in the Assembly. Patients who claim a generalization of the prescription are impatient.
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Cannabis, now classified as a narcotic, will one day become a medication? France is not near, at this stage, to join the twenty European countries (including Germany, Italy, Portugal …) which took the plunge: the experiment launched on its soil, in March 2021 , under the supervision of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), should be extended. To the chagrin of patient associations and health professionals involved who claimed the generalization of prescription.
This is in any case the line defended at the Ministry of Health, where we say that deputies will request this extension by means of an amendment to the bill of social security financing for 2023 , which should be debated in the National Assembly from Thursday, October 20. “The experiment did not go as far as expected, the health crisis which has delayed the start explains it in part,” it is forward avenue de Ségur, specifying that “almost half of the expected patients [3,000, originally] could be included in the procedure “. We also invoke “open questions” on the “deployment of the product”, its “status” and the methods of care.
heard by the Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee in late September, Minister François Braun had already taken a stand: “The results are insufficient in terms of patients for the moment, to have results that are solid”, he said then. The experimental assessment report, given a few weeks ago to the authorities, has not yet been made public – “it should be in Parliament shortly,” we promise in the entourage of Mr. Braun. In the meantime, doctors and scientists involved are not secret of their observations.
First on the number. To those who believe that it is insufficient in view of the initial objective of 3,000 patients, Nicolas Authier, president of the monitoring committee at the ANSM, replied: “With 2,100 patients included, the number is sufficient to validate the ‘Experimentation efficiency. “About 100 to 120 additional patients participate in experimentation each month. “1,400 patients are still treated today”.
not a miracle product
Therapeutic cannabis, which can be administered in the form of oil, drops, or in inhalation with a vapoteuse, is aimed at patients not relieved by conventional medicine, with five indications: refractory neuropathic pain, severe epilepsies , complications related to cancer or its treatments, palliative situations and painful spasticity (abnormal muscle stiffness). In total, in these indications, around 70,000 French patients could eventually benefit from medical cannabis, specifies Nathalie Richard, director of experimentation at the ANSM.
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