Levothyrox: the old formula will be available until 2021

New twist in the Levothyrox® affair. Remember: in 2017, Merck Laboratories began to market a “new formula” of this drug intended to treat hypothyroidism.

Problem : with the “new formula” in question, the side effects multiply – headaches, diarrhea, insomnia, dizziness, hair loss… In total, between March 2017 and April 2018, 31,000 patients reported effects more or less severe undesirable effects, attributed to this new composition of Levothyrox®.

95,000 French people are still treated with the old version of Levothyrox®

Despite everything, the marketing of the old formula of Levothyrox® was to stop at the end of September 2020. However, this Friday August 7, 2020, the Ministry of Health announced that this drug will finally be available “until 2021“- in accordance with the wishes of patient associations, which point out that at the beginning of 2020, approximately 95,000 patients were still treated with this old formula, i.e. 3.1% of the 3 million French patients treated with levothyroxine…

“The ANSM asked the Merck Laboratories to make every effort to maintain the Euthyrox specialty in France beyond September 2020. (…) Merck Laboratories responded favorably to this request. Thus the maintenance of Euthyrox® in France will continue in 2021“explained the Directorate General of Health (DGS). “Originally intended for the Russian market“, stocks of Euthyrox® “[correspondent] strictly to the old formula of the Levothyrox specialty “.

But that’s just a reprieve: Merck Laboratories thus announced that “soon“, the old formula will no longer be manufactured for any market. Patients currently treated with the old formula of Levothyrox® must therefore find, with their doctor, a medicinal alternative…

A new health scandal?

This medication helps regulate the thyroid. 3 million French people take this treatment every day. In March 2017, a new formula was put on the French market by the Merck laboratory. The latter is problematic. Thousands of patients complain of side and adverse effects. We take stock of Top Health TV:

Source:French Association of Thyroid Patients (AFMT)

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