Patients suffering from sometimes serious side effects will sue for “unintentional injuries”, according to the announcement of their lawyers.
By IM with AFP
© PIERRE ROUANET / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/VOIX DU NORTH/MAXPPP
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DAntibiotics prescribed without authorization having produced serious adverse effects. Here is the heart of the case taken up by three lawyers: Me Noémie Klein, Maxime Bailly and Martin Vettes announced Monday, March 13 by press release the forthcoming filing of a series of complaints aimed at “unintentional injuries”. The lawyers represent the interests of Philippe Coville, who already filed a complaint last October, and a “ten other patients” who “have taken antibiotics from the fluoroquinolone family and suffer from adverse effects that are sometimes serious and potentially irreversible.
According to this advice, “despite several alerts on their dangerousness, in particular from Mr. Coville, and the restrictions of indications that intervened late in 2019 with regard to their adverse effects known for years, these antibiotics remain today massively prescribed outside the scope of the marketing authorization [AMM] ».
A certain number of these patients “believe that they were not informed both of the off-label prescription of the antibiotic which was issued to them, but also of the adverse effects from which they began to suffer immediately following their consumption”, further write the lawyers.
“Very rare but serious cardiac adverse effects”
All of these patients hope through these complaints for “unintentional injuries” and “aggravated deception” to obtain the opening of an investigation by the public health unit of the Paris court “in order to centralize the investigations”, while the first Mr. Coville’s complaint, filed in Paris, was, according to one of the advisers, disoriented with the Versailles court.
On its website, the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) indicates that “fluoroquinolones are a class of antibiotics which can be used during serious bacterial infections”. “Like any drug, fluoroquinolones can cause adverse effects”, warns the ANSM, referring to “damage to the nervous system”, “neuro-psychiatric disorders”, “a condition of the musculoskeletal system” , but also “very rare but serious cardiac adverse effects”.
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Since 2018-2019, the European Medicines Agency “has reassessed” their “benefit / risk ratio”, leading in particular “to restrict their therapeutic indications and update their safety profile”, recalls the ANSM. On its website, the national agency indicates that fluoroquinolones “should only be prescribed following having carefully assessed their benefits with regard to the risks of expected adverse effects, and following having informed the patient thereof”.
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