Unfair healthcare access is a daily reality for our patients, also in France

Patients from all over the world come to us every day to support them in accessing life saving medicines that are not yet approved where they live. It is unfathomable for us that to this day, patients suffer needlessly while waiting for an approved medicine to become available where they live.?

And while we sometimes need to mobilise our entire team to support patients in accessing a medicine, there are times when we are not successful. The main obstacle that stands in the path of our patients getting their medicines is the price set forth by the manufacturer. But this is not the only obstacle. Many patients that come to us find themselves unable to get a prescription for the medicine they need. This is almost always due to the fact that physicians aren’t aware that they can prescribe an elsewhere approved medicine that can be life saving.?

Recently, we have been approached by many French patients and friends of patients looking for Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy). A medication used for the treatment of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) that is not yet approved in France. All of them could not believe that such a medicine that has the power of potentially extending lives could not be accessed in their country. They could not understand why regulators are not expediting this process in order to try to save lives and they feel misled by French politicians. And while their treating physicians are aware of the medicine and its potential benefits, they are not aware that they can as an individual physician make that ethical decision and prescribe it to their patients under the Named Patient Regulation. A regulation that is clearly specified by the ANSM (Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé) for situations like this.

At Everyone.org we have taken on the responsibility of also supporting physicians to make the best health decision that works for their patients. We are doing this by gathering the information related to import requirements in every possible country as well as by providing physicians with resources to help them understand their local law and the fact that?they have the power to safely and ethically support their patients to access innovation from abroad within the regulatory framework of their country.?

We have our work cut out for us. Our mission is not easy and the legal parameters we operate under are constantly changing. But the ethics are not.

Therefore what is consistent is our commitment to every patient that finds us. Our commitment to help them with as much information as possible to enable them to go back to their physicians and together make the best possible joint decision when it comes to their health, in any country they live.?

If you are a physician who is unsure about the legal requirements in your country when it comes to prescribing a newly approved medicine, we’d love to share this information with you.?

Thanks for reading.?

-S?