“In America, things are moving a lot, but here, no, we are forgotten”, regrets a complainant

“In America, things move a lot, but here, no”, regrets Monday April 29 on franceinfo Françoise Toulotte, who is one of the 200 people who filed a complaint in France against Philips, accusing it of having delayed in withdrawing from the market respirators whose component is suspected of being carcinogenic. On Monday, the Dutch giant announced that it had agreed to pay $1.1 billion to the plaintiffs to settle a similar dispute in the United States.

“I find that in France, we don’t talk about it enough, we are forgotten”estimates Françoise Toulotte, resident of Arras, and whose husband, who died of cancer in 2022, used one of the defective devices recalled by the brand the same year. “Our criminal complaint was filed in June 2023 and at present, we have no news, we know nothing,” she laments. She also judges that the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) “born [les] do not defend”, contrary to “to the Food and Drug Administration” in the USA.

“My husband completely trusted medicine.”

Françoise Toulotte, a complainant

on franceinfo

However, she hopes that this decision concerning American patients will change the situation, since “what happens in America happens later in France”. More than financial compensation, she especially wants “Let justice be done to all these people who were sold defective devices even though Philips knew it for a long time.”