After the victims of Mediator and Dépakine, it is the turn of those of Androcur and other progestins (Lutényl, Lutéran, etc.) to demand accountability from the State. According to information from World, two first requests were filed on March 7 before the administrative court of Montreuil, in Seine-Saint-Denis, the department where the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) is based. They are targeting the Ministry of Health, in order to obtain compensation of 748,777 euros and 361,515 euros respectively. Around fifty appeals are in preparation for 450 files identified to date. They rely on medical expertise which calls into question the late reaction of health authorities, despite warnings, to correctly inform of the risks of meningioma (brain tumor) linked to these hormonal treatments derived from progesterone. When contacted, the Ministry of Health and the ANSM did not wish to comment.
Initially developed against hirsutism, Androcur (trade name for cyproterone acetate) is a medication that inhibits male hormones. Produced by the Bayer laboratory, marketed since 1980, it has been massively prescribed to women for endometriosis, acne or even as a means of contraception. It can also be given to transgender people for its antiandrogenic properties.
At the origin of one of the two appeals, Céline A., 50 years old, who wishes to remain anonymous, took one between 2010 and 2016 on the advice of her gynecologist: “No one warned me that my life could be turned upside down because of a simple pill. » Her life “turned upside down” on September 8, 2016. Following a car accident and the persistence of intense neck pain and tremors in her left arm, she performed a brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): the examination highlights three meningiomas. The largest, the size of a clementine, is removed urgently. Eight years later, she can no longer drive or work due to headaches, difficulty concentrating and balancing, and reduced visual acuity. And live with “a sword of Damocles above the head” : two meningiomas to monitor and the ” fear “ of a new risky operation.
Before being able to refer the matter to the administrative judge, Céline A. had to undergo a lengthy medical examination as part of a “referred expertise” legal procedure. The final report, dated October 2022, that The world was able to consult, leaves little room for doubt: “The causal link between the pathology and the symptoms presented (…) and Androcur are recognized » And “cannot be attributable to any other cause”. The document is just as clear on the ANSM’s reaction: “It seems illogical that preventive measures were only taken from 2018” while the Agency itself indicates on its website that “the risk was established in 2009”. The first pharmacovigilance alert dates back to 2004, with five cases of meningiomas in patients treated with cyproterone acetate. And the risk was ” recognized “ as early as 2007, according to experts. That year, a first scientific publication, by neurosurgeon Sébastien Froelich, sounded the alarm and the Bayer laboratory itself reported the “higher risk of meningiomas in users of cyproterone acetate”.
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