For the second time, a summary judge rejects thyroid patients wanting to have access to the old formula of Levothyrox, considering that there is no shortage on the French market. The court also dismissed the compensation claim for “prejudice of anxiety”. This option seems blocked for lawyers. On the other hand, the lack of information and the stoppage of production represent good leads.
New twist in the Levothyrox soap opera. The summary judge of the Toulouse court dismissed 23 patients having side effects with the new formula of Levothyrox and who asked to have access to the old formula. This is the second time that thyroid patients have been dismissed in this case after the rejection of the request for around forty patients by the Saint-Gaudens court.
Rejection of complaints
The summary judge did not accede to the patients’ request, considering that there was no shortage on the French market since boxes of the old formula were reintroduced in sufficient quantity. The court also dismissed the compensation claim for “prejudice of anxiety”.
According to Thierry Hulot, the president of the Merck France laboratory, it is the simple recognition of the fact that 200,000 boxes of Euthyrox (corresponding to the old formula) had indeed been put into circulation in France in response to the request of health authorities, but also following the obligation imposed by the civil court of Toulouse.
No shortage on the old formula
According to the Merck laboratory, the supply problems stem from a lack of distribution. Proof of this is that out of the 200,000 boxes, only 40,000 have been issued to date. The latter also recalls that in this case “Merck has always complied with the requests of the health authorities: whether it concerns the injunction to improve the formula of Levothyrox or temporarily reintroduce boxes of the ‘old wording to facilitate the transition for patients who expressed a need for it’.
For patient associations and their lawyers, these judgments do not settle anything on the merits because it is only an “hour to hour summary”, that is to say to settle the urgency. In addition, if this disruption of supply option is for the moment obsolete, it will quickly become relevant again since Merck has no plans to continue manufacturing the old formula beyond. Patient associations therefore do not lose hope of keeping the old formula and seek to demonstrate that there are still shortages of the old formula with a bailiff who goes to pharmacies to see the lack of supply.
The option of “lack of information” remains, in the opinion of legal specialists, a good lead.
Less than one in 10 patients complain of problems with the new formulation, but doctors should suggest that they try other available formulations of levothyroxine and help them adjust the dosage.
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