The trial of Henri Joyeux and Jean-Bernard Fourtillan will begin on June 25, 2026, in Paris. The two men are accused of conducting a clinical trial, presented as therapeutic and carried out outside the regulatory framework, on hundreds of people with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, between 2017 and 2019, in Poitiers. This case brings back to light a question that is nearly eight decades old: who can conduct experiments, on whom, and under what conditions?
Nearly 400 participants could be involved, all having been promised a treatment presented as miraculous, “therapeutic patches”, according to a device that is the opposite of the rules governing research on humans. “The regulations governing clinical trials are strict, Professor Philippe Damier, head of the neurology department at the University Hospital of Nantes and consultant at the A de Rothschild Foundation Hospital, explains to Sciences et Avenir. This is a very important point for understanding the extent of the potential sentences.”
From Nuremberg to clinical trials
The rigorous standards applied to research involving humans were established after a dark chapter in human history. The Nuremberg Trials, held from November 1945 to October 1946, aimed to prosecute 21 of the leading Nazi officials. They also revealed the extent of medical experimentation conducted on prisoners without their consent. The Nuremberg Code emerged from these trials. Its ten principles have become foundational for the ethics of medical research. The first principle: the voluntary and informed consent of the individual is essential. It is on this basis that human experimentation has been shaped today.
“When developing a new drug, the first step is preclinical: the drug is tested, for example, on cells and then often on animal models. Once this step is validated—though it can take decades—we can begin to study the effects in humans. This evaluation takes place in four phases. Phase 1 to verify toxicity and better understand how the drug is distributed in the body; phase 2 to identify an initial signal of efficacy; phase 3 to confirm this signal in larger groups and under controlled conditions, that is, with a comparison to a reference treatment if one exists or to a placebo; and phase 4 to closely monitor the molecule once it is on the market.” explains Philippe Damier. This human evaluation process takes a minimum of 10 years before a treatment is available and marketed if it has demonstrated sufficient efficacy and safety.”
Today, clinical trials are declared and made public. In France, they must be registered and placed under the control of the ANSM, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products. In the case of Jean-Bernard Fourtillan and Henri Joyeux, this was precisely not the case: the ANSM had no knowledge that this clinical trial was taking place.
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's: What Despair Makes Us Accept
"We currently have no treatment capable of curing Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.""For Alzheimer's, some medications can provide modest relief from certain symptoms or slow the progression a little," Philippe Damier points out. "For Parkinson's, the available treatments are symptomatic: they compensate for the dopamine deficiency caused by the degeneration of the affected neurons and significantly improve motor symptoms, but still do not stop the progression of the disease."
And it is precisely this despair that drives patients to turn to dubious alternatives. To date, regulations are certainly necessary, but also very lengthy. According to LEEM, the professional organization representing pharmaceutical companies operating in France, it is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 molecules must be tested before a single one finally reaches the market as an approved drug, a process that most often takes nearly twenty years. "You have an incurable disease and next to you someone says: 'I have a magic cure', the neurologist concluded, What are you doing? It has to be said, it's tempting.
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