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 Professor Didier Raoult, has been officially invalidated, announced Tuesday the editor of the journal which had published it in March 2020.
"Concerns have been raised" related to the journal's publisher's "publication ethics," "the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants, as well as concerns raised by three of the authors regarding the methodology and conclusions," Elsevier, the publisher of the scientific journal International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, said in a lengthy note justifying the retraction.
The article, written by 18 authors, including Philippe Gautret, then a professor at the IHU, and Didier Raoult, aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, combined with an antibiotic - azithromycin - against Covid-19.
While this publication had fuelled hopes of treatment, it had been quickly singled out by other scientists and ethics specialists for potential errors, even manipulations, which were subsequently proven by investigations by health authorities and certain media.
Scientific studies have subsequently all demonstrated the ineffectiveness of hydroxychloroquine against Covid, the use of which has sometimes been associated with serious adverse effects, particularly cardiovascular.
Elsevier, which has retained the services of an "impartial expert acting as an independent advisor on publishing ethics," detailed its in-depth investigation into the paper on Tuesday, and its damning findings on both rule-breaking and manipulation or misinterpretation of the results.
The publisher also claims that the authors failed to provide a convincing argument in their defense. Its official retraction of the study invalidates the results.
The Gautret study was "the cornerstone of a global scandal" and its retraction "constitutes a belated but essential recognition of the scientific deviations that led to the endangerment of patients", welcomed in a press release the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT), chaired by Professor Mathieu Molimard.
The SFPT called for a broader review of the work carried out under the supervision of Professor Didier Raoult, in particular on hydroxychloroquine.
English 
French