“Medtronic has just condemned us. My life will become what it was before: a nightmare, fears Alexandra Rousseau, 49 years old. Diabetic unstable and unmanageable since the age of 16, this bank advisor located in Sainte-Soulle, near La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) is among the 250 patients in France - they are 350 worldwide - equipped with a insulin pump implanted in the stomach.
Called MiniMed implantable pump (MIP), this device marketed since the early 1990s was previously offered by Medtronic, a transnational of American origin which presents itself as "one of the world leaders in medical technologies" and claims 30, 6 billion dollars (more than 27 billion euros) in turnover. Monday, June 29, during a meeting organized under the aegis of the Ministry of Health, Medtronic definitively decided to stop the production of this MIP. This decision was made confidentially in the spring of 2017. However, patients were not informed of it until spring 2019.
They have been fighting since to obtain a delay and new pumps while waiting for other suitable technical solutions. Because everyone suffers from a rare form of diabetes: their skin forms an “insurmountable barrier” for insulin. Classic treatments have no effect on their illness, a dull and invisible ailment which results in them, on a daily basis, with repeated discomforts, constant discomfort, and which risks driving, if nothing is done , blindness, neurological and kidney problems, or amputation.
"Without it, we literally destroy ourselves"
“My life depends on this internal pump. Without it, we literally destroy ourselves ”, explained in 2019 Alexandra Rousseau. Since then, this mother and many other patients have found themselves facing "the steamroller of Medtronic" and "the powerlessness of the public authorities" faced with a fait accompli. The only concession granted by the group: consumables - catheter, needle, insulin - will be supplied until the last pump still in service is stopped.
Medtronic also committed to supply 45 MIPs before June 30. But no more delivery date is now advanced. Thirty of these insulin pumps are however already reserved for patients in serious danger. This is the case of this 50-year-old woman living in Occitania and placed on a waiting list: “The battery in my pump is showing signs of weakness. It can stop tonight, tomorrow, in a week, ”she breathes on condition of anonymity, for fear of losing the promised device. PID, she explains with deep emotion, "was the promise of a long and comfortable life ... I am now worried: will I be able to continue working, to see my grandchildren grow up?" I really hate Medtronic. "
The only alternative, for now, is a pancreas transplant
The Ministry of Health, like Medtronic, did not answer our questions. In writing, the company simply explains "understanding the concerns of patients" and recalls that it has finally consented to the "free transfer of intellectual property and technology" to two start-ups, PhysioLogic Devices and IPaDiC. Problem: these two companies based respectively in the United States and the Netherlands are not able to produce a similar device for several years.
"Medtronic must subsidize these start-ups, they have too limited a financial surface", pleads Eric Renard, head of the endocrinology department of the CHU of Montpellier (Hérault), which welcomes many of the French implanted. This professor mentions a possible “health scandal”: “Medtronic lets go of its patients without any hesitation. Its leaders engage their moral responsibility ”. Deprived of pomp, patients fear more than anything the only alternative currently available and suitable for their diabetes: pancreas transplant, its anti-rejection treatment and its serious complications.
