[Comment] Dispensation for access to novel anticancer agents in France

From an outsider’s perspective, France is seen as a generous country, because patients with severe diseases, such as cancer, do not pay for treatments and health-care providers are fully reimbursed for the cost by health insurance agencies. The benefit of this system for people with cancer (and their caregivers) regarding protection against the high costs of treatment is balanced by an high administrative burden on health practitioners to obtain funding and access to treatments. On July 1, 2021, a new legislative act came into effect for prescribing and supplying novel drugs,1 which reformed previous procedures for special dispensation for compassionate and early access to medications (related to around 265 agents for various indications, including approximately 60 medications for cancer treatment2).