FRANCE: French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur sued in France over anti-cervical cancer vaccine

Record ID: 861026

  • Title: FRANCE: French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur sued in France over anti-cervical cancer vaccine
  • Date: 25th November 2013
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 25, 2013) (REUTERS) PHARMACY SIGN EXTERIOR OF PHARMACY INTERIOR OF PHARMACY WITH CONSUMER VARIOUS OF BOX OF GARDASIL VACCINE LOGO FOR SANOFI PASTEUR ON VACCINE BOX
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • City:
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Legal System,Health,Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA5WKN3HA45SG8C3FY1KG45ON6S
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: New lawsuits may be filed against French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur and French health regulators, as more and more women claim to have developed diseases after receiving the company's Gardasil anti-cervical vaccine, said a lawyer on Monday (November 25).
    The testimonies were spurred by a teenage girl who filed the original lawsuit against Sanofi Pasteur, saying her onset of multiple sclerosis was a side-effect of the vaccine.
    Lawyer Camille Kouchner, currently representing three women intending to file another complaint, told Reuters TV that since the lawsuit was filed, she received many testimonies of teenage girls and mothers who thought they had developed a disease after receiving the vaccination.
    "Unfortunately, since yesterday I received many testimonies from mothers and girls who think the diseases they developed are related to the vaccination, because symptoms appeared weeks after the first, second or third injection of the Gardasil," lawyer Camille Kouchner said.
    The first lawsuit, filed on Friday in Bobigny outside Paris, said Sanofi and health regulators violated "obvious safety obligations and breached the principles of precaution and prevention."
    The plaintiff's lawyer, Jean-Christophe Coubris, who is based in Bordeaux, said at a news conference on Monday in Bordeaux that his now 18-year-old client, Marie-Oceanne, was 15 when she received two injections of Gardasil, which is made by Merck and sold in Europe by Sanofi and that within months she was hospitalized for multiple sclerosis.
    "The question is: first, has there been unintentional bodily harm. And second -- and it is important -- has there been any trickery or at least, have the people been sufficiently informed of the potential side effects of the vaccine, if ever we can establish a link between the vaccination and the disease," Kouchner said about the three other complaints she is planning to file.
    Sanofi said in a statement that studies in France and around the world have found no increased risk of multiple sclerosis linked to Gardasil.
    "As the scientific literature underlines, the fact that an illness appears after a vaccine is administered does not mean that the vaccine caused this illness," a written statement said.
    Sanofi said studies showed that cases of multiple sclerosis in young people occur at the same rate whether or not they have received the Gardasil vaccination.
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