The mother of two autistic children filed a complaint against Sanofi for endangering others. She has never taken Dépakine but works near the pharmaceutical giant’s factory in Morenx, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
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The Dépakine scandal is experiencing a new chapter. This drug manufactured by Sanofi has been found responsible for malformations and disorders in children, whose mothers were treated with this anti-epileptic drug during pregnancy. A mother of two autistic children, who have similar disorders, has just filed a complaint against the pharmaceutical giant for endangerment with the health division of the Paris judicial court. She has never taken the drug but works near the Sanofi factory in Mourenx, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Other families are considering doing the same. They all wonder about the release into the air of the active ingredient of the drug and the pathologies of their children.
“There is a total omerta”
This is the case of Aurélie, an assumed first name, who is currently gathering evidence. With his eldest son, now aged 8, the first signs appeared at the end of 2018. That is to say more than a year after the family moved to Mourenx, near the Sanofi factory. “Some kind of absences and like violent attacks. He was diagnosed with epilepsy. He was found twice unconscious, choking on his vomit,” says the mother. The child develops other coordination, attention, eating and visual disorders. Aurélie wonders about the link between these pathologies and the fumes from the factory and especially about the possibility of a complaint: “What we have been asking since 2019 from Public Health France or the Regional Health Agency is just that there be investigations into the population and in particular into children in the area. Filing a complaint is also scary. ..”
A feeling that Marine Martin, who chairs Apesac, the association of Dépakine victims, often notes: “I have been contacted by several families and today there are more than 10 who are in the process, but there is a total silence. It is a big undertaking. Perhaps a release of the speech via this first complaint will open the door to other complaints.” Prelude, according to her, to a long legal battle.