A year ago, the Servier laboratories trial was cut short for procedural reasons. But this time around, the 700 or so civil parties have every intention of going all the way to convict Jacques Servier, the creator of the laboratories of the same name which marketed the Mediator between 1976 and 2009.
They accuse Jacques Servier, 91, founder of the Servier laboratories, of having “deliberately” deceived them on the composition of the drug intended for diabetics, but widely prescribed by doctors as an appetite suppressant. The patients would not have been informed of “the anorectic nature” of its active principle, Benfluorex, at the origin of the development of valve disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension, a pathology currently incurable.
The Mediator is accused of having already caused hundreds of deaths in France. According to a report of legal experts made public in April, the drug, marketed from 1976 to 2009 in France, could in the long term cause 1,300 to 1,800 deaths only from valve disease (deformation of the heart valves).
Jacques Servier, as well as the four former executives of Servier and its Biopharma subsidiary tried alongside him, face four years in prison and a fine of € 75,000; Servier and Biopharma, as legal entities, face a fine of € 375,000 and a ban on practice.
Read also:
– Mediator: he would be responsible for at least 1300 deaths
– Mediator: what is a valve disease?
– I took Mediator: what to do?
