pharmacy manufacturers call on seniors to reduce the number of prescription treatments

Half of patients over 65 take more than five medications per day. LEEM, the organization that represents the pharmaceutical industry, states that “medicines are only truly effective when they are used correctly”.

Sobriety also concerns medications. Pharmaceutical manufacturers want to reduce the number of treatments on prescriptions for seniors. Inserts in the press, video on the internet: the message of this campaign, which began on Tuesday June 4, is clear: reduce the volume of capsules taken daily. “Beyond 5 medications per day, especially after age 65, ask your doctor or pharmacist if you can take less,” announce these manufacturers.

The LEEM, the professional organization of pharmaceutical companies, which represents the pharmaceutical industry, gets this message across. “Medication sobriety, we have an interest in it, explains LEEM, our medicines are only truly effective when used correctly”.
Each year, in France, drug interactions cause 200,000 hospitalizations.

Limiting overmedication is also desirable for the environment and for public accounts. The 2024 social security financing law also provided for better control of the prescribed volumes. LEEM indicates that its campaign could lead to savings of 300 million euros over a full year.

If those over 65 are particularly targeted in this campaign, it is because half of patients, at this age, take more than five medications per day. Additionally, with aging, the digestive organs function more slowly, elimination through the kidneys and liver as well, leading to increased susceptibility to side effects. Obviously, this campaign also reminds that no treatment should be stopped without medical advice.

Doctors are also involved in this objective of medication sobriety, but in any case the medical agreement signed at the beginning of June with health insurance contains this objective, for doctors, of improving the proper use of health products, by eliminating unnecessary prescriptions. Doctors must study the possibility of reducing the chronic treatment of patients aged 65 and over by two molecules. Some patients obviously need all of their capsules, but regular reassessment is necessary, health insurance points out. Each new treatment increases the risk of unwanted side effects by 15% on average. The National Union of Caisses, 2024 the new medical convention.