French patients who suffered serious side effects from a certain type of antiobiotic, have filed a complaint and denounced a health scandal, public media revealed on Monday.
Fluoroquinolones are a class of antibiotics that can be used for serious bacterial infections. They are marketed under multiple names such as Oflocet, Ciflox or Tavanic.
But they can cause irreversible or even fatal side effects such as tendinopathy, heart problems or aneurysms.
In an interview with public media channel franceinfo, one of the victims Philippe Coville, says he is now suffering from severe neuropathy after having taken fluoroquinolones in 2021 for a medical condition not usually treated by this type of drug.
The concern is that doctors continue to prescribe these fluoroquinolones for trivial infections such as cystitis, ear infections or sinusitis.
Coville has since set up an organisation to help and inform people about the harmful effects of fluoroquinolones, and has opened a Facebook page bringing together around 200 victims people.
Unjustified prescriptions
According to him, six million unjustified prescriptions have been made over the past four years in France.
A study by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirms that more than two-thirds of prescriptions for fluoroquinolones in France are written for conditions not covered by the pharmaceutical recommendations.
Coville has just filed a complaint and has started collecting testimonies, already "about fifty in France, and about fifty in other European countries."
In total, a dozen patients brought the case before the courts in Paris.
Investigation requested
They filed a complaint against their doctors and against other possible suspects, demanding that a criminal investigation be opened.
The Health ministry explained to franceinfo that it had recently published a file on the national medicines agency (ANSM), and had requested that messages appear in the prescription assistance software.
An alert message was also sent on 7 March, to all city pharmacies and hospitals.
The ministry says that other actions will be taken including "sending a communiqué to all health professionals who can prescribe these antibiotics".
France's public health authority's (HAS) recommendation "is being adjusted so that fluoroquinolones are no longer prescribed for simple cystitis in men, as is already the case for simple cystitis in women," it said.
