Hundreds of people could have died from Mediator weight loss pills. The court found the French pharmaceutical company Servier guilty of intentional deception and involuntary manslaughter in the biggest trial of the last decade.
At the center of the scandal was the drug Mediator, which was prescribed to at least five million French people with diabetes and obesity over a 33-year period, despite doctors’ concerns about its side effects. Many European countries, including Italy and Spain, banned the drug in the early 2000s due to concerns that it caused serious heart problems. However, France did not ban the sale of Mediator until 2009. The court ruled that hundreds of people could have died from the drug.
The number of offers should remain: Mediator was developed in 1976 based on the active ingredient benfluorex, which is structurally similar to amphetamine. The drug reduced the level of fat in the blood and suppressed appetite. It was approved for use in diabetics, but doctors also prescribed it to other patients who were overweight. The legal process has been ongoing since 2019, and thousands of victims have been identified in the case.
The manufacturing company claimed they were unaware of the drug’s side effects. However, the court found the company Servier guilty and fined it 2.7 million euros (about 240 million rubles). “Despite the fact that the company was aware of potential risks for many years, it did not take any action,” said Judge Silvi Doni. The former deputy director of Servier was given a four-year suspended sentence. The French regulator was also fined 300 thousand euros (about 27 million rubles) by the court for its role in the scandal. According to Agence France-Presse, the court ruled that the regulator had “completely failed” to fulfill its obligations.
Information about the side effects of the drug became known thanks to French pulmonologist Irene Frashon. She spent years collecting testimonies from patients and their families and wrote a book about it.
After Dr. Frašon’s book, a movie was made about this scandal. At the beginning of the trial, Irene Frashon mentioned in an interview with “Radio France Internationale” that several experts working for the regulatory body were also paid consultants for the pharmaceutical company Servier. “I hope the court’s decision will allow us to understand how this fraud could have gone on for so long,” Dr. Frashon told AFP before the hearing. According to one study, between 1976 and 2009, 500 people may have died from the drug in France alone. According to other data, the number of deaths could have been much higher – around 2000 people.