Press

Access to therapeutic innovation: ethical issues

Opinion 135

New medicines are therapeutic innovations with high added value. They include, for example, cancer treatments based on monoclonal antibodies or "personalised" treatments for certain lymphomas based on "activated" lymphocytes, or gene therapies for genetic diseases. These treatments, which are the result of biomedical research, are being developed using a completely different model to that used by the pharmaceutical industry.

It is highly likely that these treatments will continue to develop and that their indications will expand to include more and more patients. However, the exorbitant prices of these innovative therapies (up to two million euros per patient) raise the question of access for all patients who might need them. What's more, their very high prices could jeopardise the financial equilibrium of the solidarity-based healthcare system in France, leading to choices and restricting access to care for other types of pathology. 

The CCNE examined these major issues for public health and the future of our healthcare system in its Opinion 135 "Access to therapeutic innovation: ethical issues". The Covid-19 pandemic also highlights the importance of ethical reflection on access to therapeutic innovation, with the arrival of new-generation vaccines and monoclonal antibody cocktails.