The Dutch industrialist had launched, in 2021, a global recall of these respirators, in particular used against sleep apnea, suspected of being carcinogenic. According to associations, thousands of defective machines have still not been changed.
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A year after the health policy decision, in February 2022, imposing on Philips a schedule for replacing potentially carcinogenic respirators, the case continues. In a letter sent at the beginning of January to the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) and which franceinfo was able to consult, associations ask the medicine agency for sanctions against the company Philips which, according to them, did not keep its commitments.
According to these associations, the Dutch giant has not complied with the obligations set by the ANSM in 2022. They accuse the company of not having replaced all the respirators affected by the scandal before December 2022. They claim that to date, thousands of defective machines have still not been changed.
Another criticism addressed to Philips: the fact that the company did not transmit the results of an independent investigation into the risks of cancer that it was required to launch. Again she had a year to do it.
Refurbished machines
For its part, the Medicines Agency assures that the company Philips has undertaken to quickly provide an update on the implementation of an epidemiological study. But it does not exclude any means of administrative and/or legal proceedings against the company in order to put an end to “this situation“.
Note that patient associations are also concerned about new machines, most of which are in fact refurbished machines. In its latest opinion, dated February 9, the American health security agency considers that these new machines do not meet safety standards either. Residues of the foam incriminated as potentially carcinogenic were found in these overhauled devices.
In France, the public health center of the Paris prosecutor’s office is seized of about twenty complaints. According to information from franceinfo, a hundred French people, more than a dozen of whom have had lung cancer, are awaiting the opening of judicial information to file a collective complaint against Philips. In September, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), which took up this health file, had received nearly 3,074 reports of adverse effects, 159 of which mention cancer.
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