A new episode in the pharmaco-judicial wisdom of Levothyrox:he French subsidiary of the German pharmaceutical company Merck announced on Wednesday October 19 in a press release its indictment for “aggravated deception” in the case of the change in the formula of Levothyrox, this drug designed against thyroid problems. This decision is related to “information procedures put in place at the time of the transition from the old to the new formula in 2017”, the company said in a press release.
>> Indictment of Merck: “It’s a satisfaction”, but not “a victory”, reacts the plaintiffs’ lawyer Christophe Lèguevaques
The Merck laboratory is indicted for “aggravated deception”: a deception on a product causing a health hazard. The investigating judge of the health center of the Marseilles court decided on this indictment after Tuesday’s hearing with the boss of Merck France. The French subsidiary of the German laboratory is accused failing to inform patients – and not enough doctors – that the change in formula of Levothyrox was going to cause problems in certain patients, obliged daily to take this vital and non-substitutable treatment. In 2017, Merck had the monopoly in France on this molecule.
At this stage, there is no indictment for “homicide” nor for “unintentional injuries” for Merck, while the investigation opened since 2018 at the health center of the Marseille judicial court is indeed for these reasons. .
This indictment of Merck is a satisfaction for the thousands of victims of Levothyrox. Justice has been working for years in the shadows and this is a sign for the victims that things are progressing: it is the hope of a possible trial one day. Some 31,000 people reported suffering from side effects due to the new Levothyrox formula, especially women over 50: extreme fatigue, pain in the limbs, headachesdizziness, hair loss, heavy depression sometimes leading to suicide.
Sylvie Chéreau had founded the very first group of victims of Levothyrox, at a time when patients were told that what was happening was only a “psychological runaway”, an unfounded hysteria emanating from social networks. On learning the news of this indictment, she confides to franceinfo to have “exulted with joy”. “To arrive at an indictment, it means that the case is founded. It’s a big door that opens. Phew! They will finally believe us! These are victims who say to themselves: five years have passed, and finally today maybe there is a glimmer of hope on the truth. I will go to the end, I will not give up, because I thought I was going to die with this drug.”
Same satisfaction for Marie-Odile Bertella-Geffroy, lawyer at the Hauts-de-Seine bar in charge of more than 3,000 patients in this Levothyrox case and former investigating judge at the public health center of the Paris tribunal de grande instance. . “Victims were hopeless after five years. It was a really long time. What’s coming next – I hope – are indictments for ‘involuntary injury and manslaughter’.”
Under the judicial control, the judge forced Merck on Tuesday to provision 11.3 million euros in perspective of a possible judgment, if the laboratory had to pay a fine and damages. This allowance is 4.3 million euros for a deposit and 7 million euros for a bank guarantee.
This indictment is part of the criminal aspect of this Levothyrox case. In civil matters, justice has already ruled in favor of the sick. Independently of this criminal procedure, Merck must already compensate 3,300 patients whose moral damage was recognized in 2020 before the civil justice. The group tried all the remedies up to the Court of Cassation but its appeal was rejected last March. The conviction is therefore final and we know that other patients are bringing the same civil lawsuits in many regions of France.
For its part, Merck stresses in its press release that “this indictment in no way concerns the quality of the new formula of Levothyrox“. According to Merck’s criminal lawyer, Mario Stasi, “the judge ruled out the most serious offenses – injuries and manslaughter and endangering the lives of others – to retain only breaches in the communication plan.”