Apesac has filed a complaint in order to shed light on the Dépakine health scandal. The association notably requests the appointment of a judge.
The Association for the Assistance of Parents of Children Suffering from Anti-Convulsant Syndrome (Apesac) filed this Wednesday through Me Joseph-Oudin a complaint with constitution of civil party (to the tribunal de grande instance de Paris) so that a judicial investigation is opened and an examining magistrate be appointed.
“Despite individual complaints from several families (victims of the Dépakine), some of them lodged sixteen months ago, to date, no date has been communicated concerning any legal information”, recalls Apesac in a press release.
12,000 people suffer from sequelae
The association believes that it is however “urgent” that an independent investigation be carried out to understand how, “for nearly 50 years, Dépakine and its derivatives continued to be predominantly prescribed in pregnant women”.
According to Apesac, around 50,000 children have been affected either by disability or by the death of the child. This figure corresponds to the 50,000 pregnancies under Dépakine, Dépakote or generics carried out between 1983 and 2015, giving rise to 30,000 live births. The epidemiologist from the Institut Gustave-Roussy (Villejuif, Val-de-Marne) Catherine Hill, estimated that more than 12,000 people suffer from after-effects linked to this product.
Marisol Touraine informed of this complaint
And the association to recall the conclusions of a recent report from the Igas, according to which the French Medicines Agency (Afssaps then ANSM), and the laboratory (Sanofi) have shown a “low reactivity” during years. The inspectors specifically reproached the firm and the health authorities “for having refused to take into account the strong signals emanating on the one hand from the literature which denounced teratogenicity since 1980, on the other hand from cases of pharmacovigilance”, writes association.
“The extent and gravity of this health scandal requires”, according to Apesac, that independent judicial information be opened as soon as possible “in order to shed light on all these facts and to allow to the victims to understand how it was possible to arrive at such a dramatic situation ”. The Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, and the Secretary of State in charge of victims, Juliette Meadel, as well as the Keeper of the Seals, Jean-Jacques Urvoas, have been informed of this complaint.
A few days ago, in an interview on RTL, Marisol Touraine had confided: “I am for those who are responsible to pay”. It remains to establish the responsibilities …
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