The College, which examines compensation claims for victims of the Mediator, has so far issued 620 positive opinions. It completed the examination of 2,489 files out of a total of 8,519 requests.
2,489 files of claims for compensation from Mediator victims have already been processed, according to the latest report from the college of independent experts from the National Office for Compensation for Medical Accidents (Oniam). And among them, 620 notices of compensation were deemed positive.
1,812 applications rejected
Among the 620 positive opinions of compensation payable by Servier laboratories, three relate to deaths, said to Agence France Presse (AFP) Erik Rance, director of Oniam. “This death figure relates only to the 2,489 files examined by the panel of experts, concerning patients mostly exposed to the Mediator during the last years of its marketing dating from 1976”, he notes.
And the latter added that “nineteen requests were rejected for lack of proof of the prescription of this drug, two for lack of standing and 36 were withdrawn. ”
“The compensation rate (proportion of compensation decisions compared to the number of cases where the Mediator may be involved) is still, on the cases examined during the first half of 2014, 83%,” said Erik Rance .
Often criticized for its slowness, and its intransigence in examining cases, the College now seems to have rectified the situation. At the end of January 2014, Oniam only issued an opinion in half of the cases leading to compensation. And this rate was even lower in the past.
6,000 files under investigation
In addition, all the files still to be examined (a little more than 6,000) are being investigated (requests for additional documents, being summarized, first dispatch to the parties within the framework of the adversarial procedure, etc.). “Until now, the Servier laboratory systematically follows the opinions in favor of compensation issued by the panel of experts,” concluded the director of Oniam, speaking of this amicable compensation system which has been set up. in place at the end of 2011.
As a reminder, Mediator (benfluorex) was prescribed for 30 years, first against excess fat in the blood, then as an adjuvant treatment for overweight diabetics, before being withdrawn from the market in November 2009. It was in fact widely used for its appetite suppressant properties.
Used by five million people in France, it could be responsible in the long term for 2,100 deaths, according to a legal expert.
.
-1608549489.jpg "H1N1 flu vaccine: the long path to compensation for French people who have become narcoleptics")
