After the sentencing of the Merck laboratory paid 1,000 euros for more than 3,300 plaintiffs in the Levothyrox case, the victims' spokeswoman, Brigitte Courville, is satisfied. If she recognizes that this is "not a great victory", she is happy to have been heard. 

INTERVIEW

"I'm relieved, it's not a big victory, but we were heard." A few hours after the Merck laboratory was ordered to pay 1,000 euros to more than 3,300 people in the Levothyrox case, Brigitte Courville, spokesperson for the complainants, was satisfied. "We are not imaginary patients as we were led to believe," she insists at the microphone of Europe 1. 

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What counts above all, "is recognition"

"We had symptoms and we didn't know where they came from," she recalls, scratching Agnès Buzyn, then Minister of Health, who "smirked at [their] condition and refused to admit it. recognize". Considering that there had been non-pecuniary damage suffered by all the parties, the courts therefore ordered the Merck laboratory to pay 1,000 euros to each of the complainants. But for Brigitte Courville, it doesn't matter whether the compensation is "10,000, 1,000 or one euro", what counts above all "is the recognition" of the status of victim in this case. 

"There was Servier, now there is Merck"

"We are a victim of pharmaceutical lobbies, and I think that now people are a little more focused on this facet of laboratories", she advances before summarizing: "There was Servier, now there is Merck" , with reference to the Mediator trial which is still ongoing. And to conclude, as if to encourage the relatives of the alleged victims of the Servier group in this case, "it's worth fighting, we don't give up, we keep going."