Why is the effectiveness of Spasfon, very popular with the French, in doubt?

nothing but a placebo? – The pink pill is once again suspected of not being very effective in a publication in the medical journal “Prescrire”. Doubt benefits its maintenance on the market

We don’t know if it is really effective but the French love it. Spasfon, this antispasmodic for pain in the intestine, bile ducts, bladder and uterus based on phloroglucinol, is used almost exclusively in France. Already in the spotlight in 2023 with the publication of the book Pink pills: Ignorance in medicine by Juliette Ferry-Danini, teacher-researcher at the University of Namur, in Belgium, this drug is this time highlighted, this Tuesday, in the medical journal Prescribe.

“Nothing to expect beyond the effectiveness of a placebo”

If Spasfon, marketed by the Teva laboratory, is not on the list of 88 marketed drugs to be excluded, according to Prescribethis is because “its effectiveness is modest at best in recurrent benign intestinal disorders”, but without certainty at this stage. It is only this doubt that saves him, insofar as the balance sheet of Prescribe lists drugs that are more dangerous than useful in all situations in which they are authorized.

However, “in other clinical situations, whether urinary, gynecological, biliary or digestive, there is nothing to expect from phloroglucinol beyond(…) Read more on 20minutes

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