Dépakine: a resident of the Sanofi factory in Mourenx files a complaint for endangering others
She has never directly consumed Dépakine, but thinks she is a victim. A complaint was filed last Wednesday for endangering others by the mother of two autistic children, in Mourenx (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), according to information from Worldconfirmed by Le Parisien.
Contacted, his lawyer, Charles Joseph-Oudin, adds that the complaint was also filed for undermining the integrity of the person with ITT of more than three months and non-reporting of undesirable facts. With the filing of a complaint, “the objective is for a judicial investigation to be opened,” explains Me Joseph-Oudin.
In the viewfinder, the Sanofi factory in the city, which manufactures Dépakine. This product is a marketed antiepileptic by the laboratory, at the heart of a pharmaceutical scandal. It has been found responsible for malformations and cognitive and motor disorders in thousands of children, via their mothers treated during their pregnancy. But unlike the first Dépakine case, this time, the supposed victim did not consume this medication.
She believes she was contaminated by releases of substances from the Sanofi factory in Mourenx, classified as Seveso. This factory was indeed singled out in 2018 for unusual toxic releases of sodium valproate, which serves as the basis for Dépakine. But also bromopropane, a substance considered “possible carcinogenic” by the WHO.
Around ten complaints being filed
The woman who filed a complaint believes that these substances, to which she was allegedly exposed during her pregnancies, caused the illnesses of her two children: born in 2014 and 2016, they suffer from autism. Working since 2011 in premises located around fifty meters from the factory, she carried out a Depakinemia test in 2018, after the first revelations. Test which turned out to be positive.
In 2022, a judicial investigation had been launched by the public health center of the Paris court on these rejections. Sanofi then explained that sodium valproate emissions were not subject to any threshold until 2018 and assured the World comply with current standards.
Me Joseph-Oudin declares that around “ten complaints” for similar cases are being prepared. Each time, these are families whose children have cognitive disorders, which could be linked to emissions from the Mourenx factory. The lawyer is awaiting an “assessment from the health authorities” in the area, to find out if the children there are, more than elsewhere in France, suffering from certain disorders known to be linked to Dépakine.
