Didier Raoult's methods once again pinned down.
According to a Mediapart survey, the director of the Marseille University Hospital Institute (IHU) initiated, with his deputy Michel Drancourt, irregular clinical trials.
"Since 2017", the IHU of Marseille "has been carrying out a wild experiment against tuberculosis, causing in several patients, including a minor of 17 years, serious complications", explains the site, which quotes several employees of the Institute under cover. of anonymity.
According to the site, which is also based on email exchanges and hospitalization reports, teams from the IHU tested a combination of four drugs whose joint effectiveness had never been evaluated.
The drug agency said no
These trials were carried out despite the refusal of the French Medicines Authority, the ANSM, which must give its approval to research involving human beings, in particular clinical trials of drugs.
Asked by AFP, the IHU of Marseille did not respond immediately.
The ANSM, without mentioning these tests in particular, acknowledged that several studies had been carried out in an “inadmissible” manner by the organization and that “adequate follow-up” had been initiated by the Agency, without further clarification. .
Read alsoVaccination, hydroxychloroquine ... These strange studies shared by Didier Raoult
The information from Mediapart comes in addition to revelations published during the summer by L'Express according to which many studies carried out at the IHU have for years been freeing themselves from the rules governing experiments involving human beings.
The Raoult case
The IHU and Didier Raoult encountered a strong media aura at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, by promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the disease, despite the lack of proven effect.
Several studies have been carried out by the IHU to support the interest of this treatment, but they have been criticized by many scientists as to their methodology and their conditions.
More recently, Didier Raoult has been the subject of criticism for having advertised a Brazilian study defending a treatment based on hydroxycholoroquine, while these trials then caused a vast scandal for having been carried out on patients without their consent, and for giving rise to the publication of truncated results.
