In a decree published on Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, unveils the new rules more favorable to the victims of the Mediator for offers of compensation.
A decree published on Wednesday and signed by Marisol Touraine sets new rules more favorable to victims of the Mediator for offers of compensation. As of today, the amounts offered by the Servier laboratories will have to comply with stricter rules, “in order to be transparent, unambiguous and therefore more easily assessable by victims of benfluorex”, writes the Ministry of Health in a press release. No doubt a response to the industrialist who was recently accused of lacking will in compensating victims.
“The Minister is responding to a strong demand from victims of benfluorex and whistleblowers,” says Marisol Touraine.
More specifically, the offers must now indicate the amount granted for each type of damage and explicitly mention whether the offer deviates from the compensation scale of the National Office for Compensation for Medical Accidents (ONIAM).
The right of substitution easier to activate
The goal is to allow victims to fully appreciate the offers made to them by Servier laboratories. Concretely, “they will be more easily able to judge whether an offer is too low, and therefore if need be, to activate their right to ask ONIAM to replace the laboratories (i.e. ask ONIAM to pay them compensation in accordance with the opinion of the experts of the benfluorex college, charge ONIAM to then turn against the Servier laboratories) ”, rejoices the ministry.
He also underlines that this measure follows on from the actions undertaken by Marisol Touraine since 2012 in favor of victims of benfluorex. The most recent example is the Health Law promulgated in January 2016 which allows previously discarded files to be re-examined, to take into account the epidemiological studies launched following the discontinuation of the marketing of the Picks.
12 million euros paid to victims
“Today I am putting in place rules that are more favorable to victims for offers of compensation. We remain very vigilant, so that each victim of the Mediator can be entitled to fair compensation ”, concludes Marisol Touraine.
As a reminder, since the establishment of the amicable compensation system (to speed up procedures), 8,886 claims have been filed, mostly from women. More than 1,700 cases have obtained a favorable opinion on compensation, according to a latest report published by the Oniam committee of experts. And 1,388 cases of toxic valve disease were recognized.
Faced with criticism, the Servier laboratories indicated in September 2015 that nearly 12 million euros had already been paid to the victims.
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