Levothyrox: Merck sued by 42 patients in Toulouse

Toulouse – Forty-two plaintiffs of Levothyrox have sued the Merck laboratory in the Toulouse tribunal de grande instance, demanding compensation, expertise and the maintenance of the marketing of the old formula, it was learned on Tuesday with their lawyer.
  

This summons, filed on July 6, is a fixed-day badignment, which means that the file will be examined on the merits, but in an accelerated manner. The presidency of the court accepted this referral in urgency and fixed the hearing on July 19 at 14H, told AFP the plaintiff's lawyer, Jacques Lévy.

Levothyrox, prescribed against hypothyroidism, changed formula in France in March 2017. From July and August, thousands of patients began to report side effects sometimes very annoying (fatigue, headaches, insomnia, dizziness, joint and muscle pain and hair loss).

" For several months the plaintiffs suffered serious disturbances in total ignorance of the causes of the latter ", so it is " manifest that all the victims are entitled to obtain compensation the harm suffered, in the first place, an injury of anxiety ", we can read in the badignment of which the AFP obtained a copy.

Moreover, " by not informing the patients of the risks that could provoke the new Levothyrox, it is undeniable that they have suffered a moral prejudice that should be repaired ".

Thus, the plaintiffs claim payment of 15,000 euros to each of the plaintiffs for the injury of anxiety and 15,000 euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage.

In addition, they claim the maintenance of the marketing of the old formula and ask the court to order an expert report in order to determine the bodily injury suffered by the plaintiffs.

In June, the court of appeal of Toulouse confirmed the sentence pronounced in November which ordered to the laboratories Merck to deliver " without delay " the old formula of the drug to 25 patients of Haute-Garonne .

The third pharmacovigilance report on Levothyrox, released Friday by the Agence du médicament, still does not explain the wave of adverse effects attributed by some patients to the new formula of this drug for the thyroid.