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The Court of Cassation delivers its verdict on Merck’s Levothyrox affair: the German pharmaceutical laboratory is definitively condemned on appeal. He will have to pay 1,000 euros to each plaintiff.
These victims sued the laboratory through a class action following a change in the formula of this drug against thyroid disorders. Indeed, many of them claimed to suffer from side effects such as headaches, insomnia, dizziness or even hair loss.
Rejection by the Court of Cassation on March 16
After having attempted an appeal procedure, the verdict of which has just been rendered, the Merck laboratory is definitively condemned to compensate the 3,329 patients using Levothyrox, a drug against thyroid disorders, on a daily basis. According to the judges, “when the composition of a drug changes and this change in formula is not explicitly indicated in the leaflet, the manufacturer and the operator can be blamed for a lack of information, which could cause moral damage”explained the judges of the Court of Cassation.
According to them, the Merck laboratory therefore had “the legal obligation to inform patients directly, in particular through the box and the leaflet”.
More than three million euros in damage
The lawyer, who recently appealed to victims of Philips ventilators to take similar legal action against the manufacturer, would like to point out “the success of collective actions in this type of case”.
At first instance, in March 2019, the Lyon judges dismissed any failure by Merck in the 2017 launch of the new Levothyrox. After appealing, the victims were finally heard and Merck was convicted in a class action brought by Toulouse lawyer Christophe Lèguevaques on June 25, 2020.
Its appeal in cassation now rejected, the German pharmaceutical laboratory will therefore have to pay the sum of 3.3 million euros, to compensate each of the victims up to 1,000 euros.
The success of collective action
For the lawyer, who has led this business from the start, is both personal and professional satisfaction. “The patients are satisfied, this is the first important point. But what matters above all is the evolution of case law, through this condemnation. We can now remain in common law to attack laboratories, when they are at fault and it is a recognition of the moral prejudice of these victims with a universal character”.