"The ANSM has seized the justice again," announced a spokeswoman to AFP, after analysis of a study, co-signed by Didier Raoult, on more than 30,000 Covid patients treated at the Mediterranean Infection University Hospital Institute for two years.

This study "can be qualified as RIPH (research involving the human person, Editor's note) category 1" and therefore "should have benefited from a favorable opinion of a committee for the protection of persons and an authorization from the ANSM".

Professor Raoult co-authored in March, with seven co-authors, most of whom still practice at the IHU, a "pre-print", that is to say a non-peer-reviewed version, of his study on Covid patients concluding that the administration of hydroxychloroquine (or ivermectin) reduced mortality.

In April, the Medicines Agency said the use of hydroxychloroquine "exposes patients to potential adverse effects that can be serious".

At the end of May, sixteen learned societies of medicine challenged the authorities on a lack of sanctions in the face of the "largest known +wild+ therapeutic trial".

Under pressure from the management of Marseille hospitals, Didier Raoult and the co-authors of the disputed "pre-print" finally decided to withdraw it, said last Friday the Marseille hospitals and the infectiologist.

Last Wednesday, the Minister of Health, François Braun, had brandished the threat of sanctions against these co-authors in the Senate, where he was questioned on "an inertia of the public authorities" in the face of the excesses of the IHU of Marseille under the Raoult era.

© 2023 AFP