“It was a departure. I gave up on my previous life. » In October 2021, at age 55, Marie-Sophie Dupont was forced to stop working. Almost a year after having surgery for a meningioma, a tumor in the meninges which surround the brain and spinal cord, the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM) placed her on disability. A shock for this former communications manager of the CFA of Saint-Herblain (Loire-Atlantique). Today, she hopes to obtain justice because, for her, this meningioma was caused by a drug, Androcur, which she took between 1998 and 2010. It was prescribed to her by her gynecologist as a means of contraception and fights against her acne.
State responsibility brought before the courts
Accompanied by the Dante law firm in Paris, Marie-Sophie Dupont will soon be summoned for a legal expertise, the objective of which is ” double “, explains Me Charles Joseph-Oudin: “Determine if there is a causal link between taking the drug and the meningioma and assess the damage. » His office has around 450 cases of victims of meningiomas, including around fifty at the legal expertise stage, specifies the lawyer. At the beginning of March, two first requests were filed before the administrative court of Montreuil in order to obtain compensation. Others should be filed “during June”.
The expert opinions on which they are based affirm that the health authorities ” have delayed in transmitting and disseminating information to patients” on the risks of meningiomas linked to taking these progestins, assures Me Charles Joseph-Oudin. Requested by West Francethe National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) did not respond to our requests.
The link between taking certain progestins and an increased risk of developing a meningioma has been proven. Several successive studies carried out in France have demonstrated an increased risk for six drugs: Androcur, Lutéran, Letenyl, Depo Provera, Colprone and Surgestone (which is no longer marketed in France). The latest study was published on March 27, 2024 in the British Medical…
