Article from the world of November 7, 2024
Press release
The AMAVEA Association (Méningiomes Association due to cyproterone acetate, assistance to victims and taking into account other molecules) filed a complaint against X on November 5, 2024 with the Public Prosecutor of Paris and requests the opening of judicial information on the management of risks and side effects of the Androcur drug.
The Androcur, whose active ingredient is cyproterone acetate, is a pharmaceutical specialty marketed in 1980 by the SCHERING pharmaceutical laboratory, which has become Bayer Healthcare SAS.
Prescribed to women with severe female hirsutism, it was then widely generated.
However, the androcur (cyproterone acetate) is known to induce the development of brain tumors, called meningiomas.
This laboratory ripper identified by the laboratory in 2004, was then recognized by the firm and the ANSM in 2008 and 2009. However, no information was communicated to prescribing health professionals or patients at that time, thus exhibiting thousands of women with serious dangers.
It was not until January 2011 that the ANSM and the laboratory finally joined the risk in the notice, then 2019 (more than eight additional years) that the Health Authority set up a risk management plan which included, among other things, the dissemination of targeted information to patients under Cyproterone acetate.
This delay is all the more worrying in 2017, around 90,000 patients were identified by health insurance under this treatment, more than half of which consumed it without indication approved by health authorities (acne management, hair loss, endometriosis etc.)
This lack of reactivity has exposed thousands of patients in dangerous doses of cyproterone acetate, thus promoting the development of intracranial tumors, themselves likely to cause many handicaps such as neurocognitive disorders, loss of vision, smell, speech disorders, as well as motor disorders.
Since 2019, the Amavea association and the Dante cabinet (Masters Charles Joseph-Oudin and Ophélie Dillies, Ms. Valentine Plouy) have supported many victims who developed one or more meningiomas following the repeated consumption of Androcur, both in their medical follow-up and in their compensation. To date, around 250 files concerning Androcur are open in order to obtain compensation. Among them, 29 have been the subject of civil legal expertise, and 10 are currently before the Conciliation and Compensation Commission (CCI). 33 expert reports were filed confirming the link between the consumption of Androcur and the appearance of meningiomas. In addition, more than 10 appeals are underway before the administrative court against the ANSM for breach of its duty of precaution and information.
It is now obvious that the actors in charge of Androcur's security - health agency, laboratories, doctors - failed in the management of the side effects of this medication and AMAVEA, representative of thousands of victims, hopes that a survey will be carried out to determine the negligence committed and establish the responsibility of the actors involved.
The AMAVEA complaint will be completed and supported very soon by the filing of individual complaints of victims of this medication.
It is recalled that faced with the magnitude of this major public health scandal, AMAVEA and Me Joseph-Oudin have requested the Ministry of Health and the Directorate General of Health to be implemented a specific compensation system. To date, no follow -up has been given to these requests.
For more information you can consult our websites [1] or join Me Joseph -oudin: cjo@dante-avocats.fr 06 62 71 92 21.
