In 2013, the Administrative Court was seized by a patient, victim of the mediator, against the State. This applicant claims to have been “exposed from 2001 to 2009 to the Mediator for the treatment of diabetes” and has since suffered “rapid shortness of breath when walking and edema of the legs”.
The Paris Administrative Court has just handed down a first judgment in this case. He directly blames the State for the faults committed by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) “by not withdrawing and not suspending the marketing authorization of the specialty pharmaceutical containing benfluorex marketed under the name Mediator and not informing the supervisory authority “.
There is no need to exonerate the State from its responsibility
Considering that the decisions relating to drugs taken by the Director General of the ANSM in the exercise of his powers are taken on behalf of the State, it is therefore the State which is considered responsible. Without ruling out “the faults and maneuvers attributable to Servier laboratories”, manufacturer of the drug, “there is no need to exonerate the State from its responsibility” in maintaining the drug on the market after July 1999, date at which the first harmful effects of the drug were mentioned in the national pharmacovigilance commission.
No fixed compensation amount
However, the court did not rule on the amount of compensation. It underlines the need for additional expertise. An expert will therefore be appointed by the president of the tribunal in order to “rule on the causal link between the pathology described and exposure to the Mediator”.
Remember that last May, the new president of the Servier group (who replaces the founder Jacques Servier who died on April 16), affirmed that the laboratory will assume its responsibilities and will compensate all the patients who have suffered from the Mediator.
