Levothyrox: the old formula will still be distributed in France in 2024 and 2025

The distribution of the old formula of Levothyrox will be extended in France in 2024 and 2025, said Tuesday the German laboratory Merck which manufactures this treatment designed for thyroid problems. At the request of the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), "Merck has just agreed to extend these imports again, still temporarily, in 2024 and 2025 (...)", according to a press release from the group.

A "huge relief" for "about 100,000 patients who continued to use it every day" and who "feared that it would disappear", welcomed the French Association of Thyroid Patients (AFMT) in a press release. At the same time, Merck emphasizes “the need for healthcare professionals to support patients in finding the long-lasting treatment that suits them best, in order to anticipate the day when this old formula will no longer be available at all”.

The laboratory recalls “that these transitional imports are made from batches intended for the last countries that have not yet switched to the new formula of the drug and manufactured in a manner strictly identical to the old formula of Levothyrox, that is to say say Germany then Russia until 2023 then Argentina from the end of this year”.

The distribution of the old formula, imported since the end of 2017 under the name of Euthyrox and which was to stop in 2020, has been extended several times, against the backdrop of a legal battle over the new formula, which uses the same active ingredient. , levothyroxine, but with new excipients. Between March 2017 and April 2018, some 31,000 patients suffering from headaches, insomnia, dizziness and other side effects had blamed the new formula. According to Merck, more than 18 million patients in Europe are treated daily with the new Levothyrox formula.