2023-09-08 09:56:00
Thyroid disorders affect 15% of the French population. These pathologies include:
Among these pathologies, hypothyroidism is the most common. It also affects 1 to 2% of the French population. It is not possible to cure this disease. Therefore, it is appropriate to take lifelong treatment: Levothyrox. The latter has been the subject of much debate recently due to a change in the formula. Following numerous debates and complaints, the Merck laboratory announced this Tuesday, September 5 to AFP (Agence France Presse) the extension of the old formula until 2025 in France.
Levothyrox is a treatment which contains a hormone belonging to the thyroid hormone family. “It is mainly used as a replacement treatment to replace natural thyroxine when it is no longer secreted in sufficient quantity by the thyroid. This insufficiency of secretion, or hypothyroidismmay be due to the thyroid itself or to the insufficiency of another gland which controls thyroid secretion (disease or removal of the pituitary gland)”, details Vidal, the reference site for health products.
The organization adds: “It is also used when we want to slow down the excitatory action of the pituitary gland on the thyroid, particularly in certain goiters“. In the context of hypothyroidism, treatment is taken orally, once a day, in the morning on an empty stomach.
Levothyrox: why is the new formula so controversial?
Levothyrox is a drug developed by the German laboratory Merck. The company decided to change its formula in 2017, using the same asset, la Levothyroxine, but with new excipients. So the old formula, known as Euthyrox, was to stop being distributed in 2020. Problem, many patients reacted badly to this new treatment. Between March 2017 and April 2018, nearly 31,000 patients reported headaches, dizziness or other side effectsfollowing taking the new treatment.
Numerous legal proceedings have therefore been launched once morest the laboratory, requesting the return of the old formula. Following these legal proceedings, the distribution of the treatment was extended until today. The national agency for the safety of medicines and health products (ANSM) was also involved in the matter, supporting this extension of product distribution. In a press release shared on Tuesday, September 5, Merck officially announced the distribution of the old formula until 2025 in France.
Levothyrox: preparing patients for the new formula in 2025
If the German laboratory gives a reprieve to the old formula of Levothyrox, it specifies: “These transitional imports are made from batches intended for the last countries have not yet switched to the new formulation of the drug and manufactured in a strictly identical manner to the old formula of Levothyrox, that is to say Germany then Russia until 2023 then Argentina from the end of this year“. So the old formula will soon no longer be no longer manufactured and will no longer be available at all following 2025.
This additional delay should therefore give patients and their doctors time to find the treatment that corresponds to them. Merck emphasizes the: “need for healthcare professionals to support patients in find the long-term treatment that suits them bestin order to anticipate the day when this old formula will no longer be available at all.” For the moment, the people concerned are pleased with this time saved. “Let us remember that even today there are approximately 100,000 patients who find this formulation to be the one that suits them best and who feared that it would disappear”, concludes the French Association of Thyroid Patients (AFMT) in its press release.
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