This Wednesday, December 20, 2023, the Servier laboratory was sentenced by the Paris Court of Appeal to a heavy fine, as part of the trial linked to the Mediator affair, a controversial drug having caused the death of several people in recent years. years.
In 1976, Servier pharmaceutical laboratories formalized the marketing of benfluorex, known under the name Mediator. This drug, chemically close to norfenfluramine, a toxic substance itself very close to amphetamine, was sold in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, known as “fatty” (because it is associated with being overweight).
It has also been prescribed to patients wanting to lose weight. In total between 1976 and 2009, when its marketing stopped, Mediator was prescribed to nearly two million people.
In June 2010, a scandal broke out when pulmonologist Irène Frachon (Brest university hospital center) raised the alarm about this drug in the columns of the book Mediator 150 mg: how many deaths? The work then traces his struggle to bring to light and denounce the misleading indication, the hidden amphetamine nature and the already known risks of this drug marketed by Servier laboratoriesand denounced in vain by the magazine Prescribe since 1997.
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Mediator: Servier laboratories sentenced to a heavy fine
Very quickly, complaints against the laboratory multiplied, which led to the opening of a large-scale trial: Mediator is accused of causing the death of 1,500 to 2,100 people in France, not counting those who suffer the consequences of side effects.
Prosecuted for “endangering the lives of others”, “involuntary manslaughter” and “administration of a harmful substance”, “fraud”, and “aggravated deception”, the Servier laboratory was sentenced this Wednesday, December 20 to a fine of more than nine million euros. A much higher fine than that handed down before the Paris Criminal Court in 2021 where the group was fined 2.7 million euros.
We take note that the Servier group will also have to reimburse 415 million euros to social security and mutual organizations, to which are added a little more than five million euros for financial damage and disorganization. Also, the court of appeal also ordered the laboratory to pay compensation for each of the victims. “depending on the cases”, they should amount to a few thousand euros at most. Like the ad franceinfothe group announced its intention to appeal to the Court of Cassation.