The practices of Didier Raoult at the Institut hospitalo-universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection are the subject of a new internal investigation, requested by the Public Assistance of Marseille Hospitals (AP-HM). It concerns the conditions under which the professor would have conducted research on hydroxychloroquine, as part of the fight against Covid-19.
In a press release, the AP-HM said it had requested new investigations in order to “confirm the veracity of the facts reported by the press” which, if they are proven, “would constitute serious dysfunctions”. The institution refers here to the accusations published this Friday, November 19 by Mediapart.
“Falsified scientific results”?
It is about “pressure exerted” by Didier Raoult and manipulation of “scientific results” concerning the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19. According to the information site, “more than a dozen people (biologists, doctors, interns or assistants)”, members of the IHU, denounced “the falsification of biological results allowing to conclude to the beneficial effect of the ‘hydroxychloroquine by biasing the results of PCR tests in a study comparing IHU patients taking the treatment and patients at the CHU de Nice not taking it ”.
According to these testimonies, the “threshold of positivity” of PCR tests was modified because “not going in the direction of Didier Raoult”. What, concretely, caused “a greater number of negative results” to the Covid-19 “For patients followed in Marseille”.
On October 22, a previous internal investigation had already been carried out at the IHU, at the request of the AP-HM. This time it concerned supposed illegal “clinical trials” against tuberculosis carried out since 2017 by the institute of Professor Raoult. Here again, the investigations were triggered following an article in Mediapart. The AP-HM had justified its approach by evoking the “seriousness and the potential extent of the reported facts”.
Retired since the end of August as a university professor and hospital practitioner, Didier Raoult should leave the management of the IHU at the end of June at the latest. The launch of the recruitment of a new director was announced in mid-September by the six founding members of the institute and its president. Professor Raoult’s successor should be appointed no later than June 30.