Two requests were registered with the administrative court of Montreuil (Seine-Saint-Denis) in order to obtain compensation for women victims of Androcur, a progestin which greatly increases the risk of meningiomas, according to the receipt consulted on Friday by the AFP.
Filed on March 7, these requests “aim to recognize the fault of the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), therefore of the State, in this major public health scandal” and obtain “compensation respectively of 748,777 euros and 361,515 euros,” Charles Joseph-Oudin, lawyer for the applicant, told AFP, confirming information from the daily Le Monde.
The victims’ lawyer points to a “lack of information”
“Three other requests will be filed by the end of next week” and others will follow, he added, specifying that his office had in its hands 450 files concerning women who consumed Androcur and other progestins, Lutéran and Lutényl. “Fifty individual legal assessments have already been ordered” and “the twenty completed assessments all maintain the causal link between these meningiomas and the taking of medications,” says the lawyer. These expert opinions point to “above all, a lack of information” on the known risks of the drug for which “the primary responsibility is that of the State (ANSM) in conjunction with the responsibility of the laboratories”, he underlines. Contacted by AFP, the ANSM does not comment on the current procedure.
Our file on the contraceptive pill
Me Joseph-Oudin and the Amavea association, which brings together 900 patients suffering from meningiomas after taking progestins, are seeking to discuss with the Ministry of Health so that “a compensation system is put in place as was done for Mediator and Dépakine”, two health scandals leading to compensation.