The public health department of the Paris prosecutor's office has been seized since June 2022 of several complaints for aggravated deception and endangering the lives of others.

They come from patients complaining about Philips breathing apparatus for sleep apnea.

The complaints were filed for aggravated deception, involuntary attacks on physical integrity, endangering the lives of others and administration of harmful substances, the prosecution said on Thursday.

Since June 2021, Philips has had to engage in a massive global recall campaign for several defective models of its respirators.

Harmful foam particles

These devices, used by 350,000 French patients and 1.5 million across Europe suffering from sleep apnea, contain sound-absorbing foam.

It is this that is in question: the Dutch group noticed that particles came out of certain devices and could be inhaled or ingested by the patient, causing irritation and headaches.

Philips also mentioned in June 2021 a “potential” risk of long-term cancers.

However, since then, the group has been slow to replace defective devices.

Patients therefore find themselves torn between the potential risks associated with these respirators and the well-known risks they incur if they stop using them.

Philips too inactive

After the meeting of a committee of experts in June, the French Medicines Authority (ANSM) judged that Philips' strategy to assess the potential risks linked to defective respirators was "not understandable", and asked that it be clarified.

Before the ANSM, the group argued that the recall campaign had been initiated purely as a precaution and that more in-depth tests were underway on the foam particles and their dangerousness.

Faced with what is deemed to be inaction, the courts have therefore taken up the various complaints.

“The case is becoming a public health problem”, welcomed Me Christophe Léguévaques, lawyer for the French Federation of Associations and Friends of Insufficient or Respiratory Disabled Patients (FFAAIR).

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  • Phillips

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