While the controversy over Levothyrox takes a legal turn, a general practitioner has decided to file a complaint in turn, considering himself mistaken.
The wound does not stop suppurating. After the patients, it is the turn of a doctor to appeal to justice in the Levothyrox case. Dr Nicolas Bouvier, general practitioner in Reims, believes he has been put in a situation of making his patients take an undue risk, because of the controversial new formula of the drug for the thyroid. He announced that he had lodged a complaint against X for “aggravated deception”, that is to say having resulted in a danger to human health.
“I filed a complaint (…) so that French justice can determine (sic) precisely the causes of the serious and genuine disorders that a large number of French people have presented following the absorption over several weeks of Levothyrox tablets produced by the Merck Kgaa laboratory ”, announced the Reims doctor. on his Facebook account, on November 9th. He has since announced that he has also contacted the Defender of Rights.
A controversy that never ends
Nicolas Bouvier, who worked in the pharmacology service of the University Hospital of Reims, is worried about the symptoms observed following the change of formula. “Initially, we thought that the symptoms – hair loss, heart problems, digestive problems, fatigue – would subside, but nothing helped,” he explains in the columns of the Parisian. “Worse, some who were doing well at the start of the change of formula are now showing worrying problems. “
The new formula of Levothyrox was requested by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) from the Merck laboratory in 2012, in order to improve the stability of the product over time. The change, effective since last spring, has caused unwanted effects in many patients. Health authorities, and many doctors, see it as a sign of disruption of thyroid balance linked to variations in absorption, undoubtedly reinforced by a nocebo effect linked to the media coverage of the affair.
First doctor’s complaint
But while the controversy does not abate, and some patients report persistent symptoms, legal recourse is piling up, with collective action against the Merck laboratory in Lyon and numerous individual complaints, centralized with the public health center. of the Marseille TGI. However, this is the first time that a doctor has lodged a complaint in his capacity as a health professional.
Faced with the controversy over the new formula, Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn announced in September the return to the market of the old Merck formula, under the name Euthyrox. L-Thyroxyn Henning, marketed in Germany by Sanofi, has also been available in pharmacies since last month. Last Friday, the ministry announced that another generic, Thyrofix (Unipharma), would be available starting in early December. New features which bring the number of alternatives to the new Levothyrox to four.
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