Our disenchanted society seems to have mourned the notion of progress which had aroused the enthusiasm of generations of researchers and doctors over the last century. Contested in the name of industrial society misdeeds, progress is a word that is going out of fashion and giving way to the more extensive notion of “innovation”. Being a key word in communication and marketing vocabulary, innovation has spread beyond the world of consumption and advertising into the public space and political discourse. Innovating has become the new categorical imperative of our time. The field of well-being and health is no exception. The fact is the word innovation is used more and more in medical conferences. This seductive power can lead to abuse doctors and especially patients who will claim a “right to try”, even if it means underestimating the safety issue of respecting methodological requirements. Faced with this slippery slope, this article aims to remind us that what is important for patients is not the novelty but the effectiveness of the products administered to them. If we want to maintain a watertight division between “health product” and “commercial product”, between the “patient” and the “customer”, we must remember the essential scientific significance and the inestimable ethical value of the notion of medical progress.