Thyroid patients can now get the Italian equivalent of Levothyrox in pharmacies. A measure deemed insufficient by the Academy of Medicine.
Substitution for Levothyrox must be better supervised! This is the message delivered by the National Academy of Medicine on August 17. This warning may not reassure the three million patients who suffer from thyroid gland failure. Threatened with out of stock, the usual treatment is replaced in pharmacies by its Italian equivalent, Eutirox. “Imported from Italy, this specialty is identical in composition to Levothyrox, in active principle and in excipients”, explained a few days ago, the” National Medicines Safety Agency (Ansm).
The Academy considers that the recommendations taken by the Ansm are insufficient. It recalls that Levothyrox is a drug with a narrow therapeutic margin and that in certain indications, an overdose or an under-dosage can have serious consequences, in particular in certain people (hypothyroid pregnant women, thyroidectomized patients ( e) s, etc …). Any variation of its concentration in the body, even slight, can indeed cause undesirable effects, in particular “a transient imbalance” of the levels of thyroid hormones.
The Academy notes, moreover, that if many general practitioners and endocrinologists systematically prescribe Levothyrox under the non-substitutable terms, it is because concordant elements encourage them to do so, in the interest of their patients.
So, “to preserve the health of thousands of patients”, the Academy recommends that the contents of the active principle (L-thyroxine) of Levothyrox, its generics and Eutirox be published, in order to adjust the dosage as well as possible. and as soon as possible in the event of a substitution made unavoidable by the shortage of the originator.
The Ansm, however, suggested in a letter sent on August 1 to prescribing physicians to review patients “within 3 to 6 weeks following delivery” to ensure that their therapeutic balance was maintained.
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