Marseilles (AFP)

Professor Didier Raoult has filed an appeal with the Council of State to challenge the decision of the Medicines Agency not to widely authorize the prescription of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19, which will dry up its supply capacities.

On October 23, the Medicines Agency (ANSM) refused to issue a temporary recommendation for use (RTU) which would have allowed a more extensive use of this molecule, the effectiveness of which against the coronavirus is still disputed.

"I will appeal to the Council of State and I decided to attack the director of the ANSM because he is playing a game that is dangerous for the health of the French," said Didier Raoult in a video posted Wednesday on the site of the 'Institut hospitalo-universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection, which he directs.

"The request for annulment before the Council of State was filed at the end of last week", told AFP his lawyer Fabrice Di Vizio.

This substantive appeal should not be considered very quickly.

"A criminal complaint for illegal taking of interests and endangering the lives of others against the director of the ANSM, Dominique Martin, is also in preparation," he added.

Hydroxychloroquine is marketed in France by the Sanofi laboratory under the name Plaquenil, but for other diseases such as rheumatism or certain lupus.

The prescription by a doctor of a drug outside the indications provided for by the marketing authorization (MA) must be done "on a case-by-case basis", informing the patient of the risks incurred and of non-reimbursement, and the mention "off-label" must appear on the prescription.

The temporary recommendation for use (RTU), which gives access to reimbursement, aims for a massive prescription outside the Marketing Authorization, beyond the prescription on a case-by-case basis.

Hence the demand for the IHU Méditerranée Infection, which has a large number of patients and is encountering supply difficulties.

"Currently we can no longer treat all the patients who arrive. So we will start to sort, such as resuscitation, to treat as a priority those who have the most vital risk", explained Didier Raoult in a video dated October 26 .

Sanofi confirmed to AFP that "outside of such a framework (RTU) and in the absence of a duly authorized clinical trial, we are required to comply with our obligations concerning the provision of our specialty Plaquenil ".

The laboratory therefore continues "to deliver the standard quantities that we used to deliver before the pandemic (which have nothing to do with the quantities requested in the context of Covid-19)", he added.

"Sanofi does not have to know what we use the drugs we receive in a hospital", retorted Professor Raoult.

After the ANSM's refusal, he denounced on Twitter a "double standard" of the Agency, according to him intended to promote the antiviral remdesivir (Gilead) to the detriment of hydroxychloroquine.

Veklury, trademark of remdesivir, received a conditional authorization to market in Europe at the beginning of July for severe forms of Covid-19 and it benefits in France from a temporary cohort authorization for use (ATU), another procedure allowing certain categories of patients to use drugs not yet placed on the market.

© 2020 AFP