After more than four years of controversy, the founding study of the IHU of Marseille on the use of hydroxychloroquine against Covid, signed in particular by Didier Raoult, has been officially invalidated, announced this Tuesday, December 17, the publisher of the magazine that He published it in March 2020.
“Concerns were raised” related to the journal’s editor’s compliance with “publication ethics,” “the appropriate conduct of research with human participants, as well as concerns raised by three of the authors about the methodology and conclusions,” it said. Elsevier, editor of the scientific journal International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, in a long note justifying this retraction.
The article signed by 18 authors, including Philippe Gautret, then a professor at IHU, and Didier Raoult, sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, combined with an antibiotic, azithromycin, against Covid-19.
If this publication had raised hopes for a treatment, other scientists and ethicists quickly pointed it out as a possible error, even manipulation, which was later demonstrated by investigations by health authorities and some media outlets.
“Scientific deviations”
Subsequently, scientific studies demonstrated the ineffectiveness of hydroxychloroquine against Covid, the use of which has sometimes been associated with serious adverse effects, especially cardiovascular.
Elsevier, which has retained the services of an “impartial expert acting as an independent advisor on editorial ethics,” detailed its extensive investigation into the article and its damning conclusions that it fell foul of the rules as much as manipulation or interpretation. of the results.
The editor further states that the authors have not argued convincingly in their defense. His official retraction of the study invalidates the results.
The Gautret study was “the cornerstone of a global scandal” and its retraction “constitutes a late but essential recognition of the scientific excesses that endangered patients,” welcomed the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT). ).
The SFPT called for a broader questioning of the work carried out under Didier Raoult, in particular on hydroxychloroquine. The Marseille professor is also banned from practicing medicine for two years from February 1, 2025.
Source: BFM TV
