Stéphane Burgatt, with Europe 1 and AFP 6:43 p.m., October 28, 2021

While an evaluation of a report by the ANSM on "clinical trials" against tuberculosis carried out at the Mediterranean IHU will have been carried out, Didier Raoult replied on Thursday afternoon. "There is no research into treating tuberculosis within" the facility, the virologist tweeted.

The Marseille prosecutor's office announced on Thursday that it would assess a report by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) on "clinical trials" against tuberculosis which would have been carried out at the Marseille University Hospital Institute ( IHU) outside the legal framework.

"Let this be clear, there is no research on the treatment of tuberculosis within the infectious and tropical diseases pole of the AP-HM hosted by the IHU in Marseille", replied Didier Raoult on Twitter, Thursday afternoon.

Let this be clear: there is no research on the treatment of tuberculosis within the infectious and tropical diseases pole of @ aphm_actu hosted by @ IHU_Marseille.

- Didier Raoult (@raoult_didier) October 28, 2021

"Anti-tuberculosis drugs used" since the war

The epidemiologist then relayed a message from Professor Philippe Brouqui, director of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Pole of the AP-HM. "The treatments used in the pole are anti-tuberculosis drugs used since the Second World War" and "the incriminated drugs all benefit from an authorization to put on the matché for other pathologies", defends the specialist.

The report Tuesday by the director of the ANSM to the judicial court and the accompanying documents "are the subject of a first evaluation by the Marseille prosecutor's office for assessment of the follow-up to be given", wrote in a press release. Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens.

"This report relates to clinical trials which have been carried out within the IHU outside the legal framework," she continued.

The suspicion of "wild experimentation"

On Wednesday, the ANSM announced that it had seized the prosecutor and was going to "carry out an inspection within" the IHU of Marseille, headed by the controversial professor Didier Raoult. According to Mediapart, which exposed the case last week, the IHU carried out a "wildcat experiment" against tuberculosis using a combination of four drugs whose joint effectiveness had never been evaluated. On Wednesday, the Assistance Publique des Hospitals de Marseille (AP-HM), on which the IHU depends, indicated that "despite the reservations expressed by the ANSM, the IHU Méditerranée Infection continued to deliver these treatments" against tuberculosis .

The ANSM is the authority which gives the approval to research involving human beings, in particular clinical trials of drugs.

The investigation carried out by the organization on which the IHU depends, also confirms that "some" of the patients treated against tuberculosis with the combination of antibiotics involved were "suffering from renal complications, at least one of them. required surgery ".

A departure next year

For its part, the ANSM clarified on Wednesday: "According to our initial investigations, we consider that certain studies should have been carried out in accordance with the legislation governing research involving humans (…). This is not admissible" .

The IHU and Didier Raoult met with strong media coverage at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, by advocating hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the disease, despite the lack of proven effect.

The media virologist will have to leave his post in the summer of 2022.