Levothyrox : the issuance of the old formula will be limited

Merck

Published the 27.09.2017 at 16.55

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In the wake of the announcement made on Tuesday by the minister of Health, the national security Agency of the drug (MSNA) has confirmed that the former formula Levothyrox, now named Euthyrox, will be available from October 2 in pharmacy.

Its sale will, however, be limited. The health agency said that its availability will be temporary and will be reduced to 90 000 treatments sold in packaging quarterly. Only people not supporting the other treatments have access to it.

“It must be prescribed exclusively as a last resort to patients, limited in number, that are experiencing adverse effects sustainable with other drugs,” says the MAN in a press release.

Three alternatives are available

To offer more alternatives, the MSNA also announces that the French market will open to competition. “From mid-October, Merck will no longer have the monopoly of the levothyroxine (the active principle of the Lévothyrox, editor’s note) on the French market “, said Agnès Buzyn on RMC this Tuesday.

A drug produced by the laboratory Sanofi, L-Thyroxin Henning, will be also available. It is already sold in Germany for several years. The boxes distributed in France to be imported, and a leaflet in French will be provided by the pharmacist. “Subsequently, a request for authorisation of the placing on the market of the laboratory will allow for a marketing sustainable,” says the MAN.

Finally, the prescription will be left open for a third formulation, the L-Thyroxin laboratories Serb. It is an oral solution in drops, in principle, reserved for children, but who had already been prescribed to some patients suffering from side-effects with the new formula of the Lévothyrox. Its use will however be reserved for children under the age of 8 years, people suffering from swallowing disorders, and all patients who already been prescribed this specialty before August 31, 2017.