Justice will investigate the malfunctions at the Marseille IHU at the time when it was led with an iron fist by Didier Raoult, after a second damning report which prompted the government to take legal action on Monday.
In a severe report published on Monday, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and its counterpart for higher education and research (IGESR) point to a series of medical and scientific abuses, but also in management, several of which may “raise of a criminal qualification”.
This report “highlights serious dysfunctions” within the Mediterranean Infection University Hospital Institute (IHU-MI), created in 2011 and directed by Professor Didier Raoult until the end of August. “Several elements” are “likely to constitute offenses or serious breaches of health or research regulations”, write the ministers Sylvie Retailleau and François Braun in a joint press release. They specify that they have seized the Marseille prosecutor’s office.
“Health risk for patients”
Monday evening, Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens told AFP that she had opened a judicial investigation, without further details. Contacted by AFP, the Marseille IHU did not wish to react immediately.
Are pointed out “certain medical and scientific practices (…) not respecting the regulations in force and which can generate a health risk for patients”, “deviations in management practices which can generate harassment and ill-being at work” and “ excesses in governance”. A gradual deterioration in the institution’s financial situation is also mentioned.
This report, commissioned by the executive, covers a wider field than a previous one, already scathing, published a few months ago by the Medicines Agency (ANSM) which had already taken legal action. Excerpts from its preliminary version had been disclosed in early July by Provence and Mediapart.
Hydroxychloroquine in the viewfinder
The inspectors note that patients treated at the IHU for Covid-19 or tuberculosis were administered “molecules outside their marketing authorization”. These prescriptions included, for example, a treatment based on hydroxychloroquine, banned since May 2020. Despite the ineffectiveness of this drug against Covid, Didier Raoult has promoted it since the start of the pandemic and has acquired worldwide notoriety. .
The report also confirms that doctors at the IHU were under pressure from their management to prescribe this treatment, or ivermectin, another drug with anti-Covid benefits that have never been proven.
For clinical research, the report denounces “serious shortcomings (…) until a very recent period (end of 2021-beginning of 2022)”: several studies have thus been carried out without respecting the provisions of the public health code for research. involving the human person.
Retired since the summer of 2021 from his post as a university professor-hospital practitioner, Didier Raoult recently left the head of the IHU Méditerranée. Since September 1, the institute has been led by Professor Pierre-Edouard Fournier, an infectious disease specialist from the institution who worked under the aegis of Professor Raoult. His appointment drew criticism, both internally and externally, as not marking enough of a break.