The fear of being ill because of Mediator recognized by justice. The fact is exceptional enough to be reported. Especially since it concerns the case of the Mediator, this anti-diabetic diverted as an appetite suppressant, accused of having caused serious lesions of the heart valves (valve disease).
50 consumers who took Mediator had taken the Servier laboratories to court not for having declared a cardiac pathology but because they were afraid of developing one. These people who felt they were living with a sword of Damocles over their heads had requested financial compensation last December from the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) of Nanterre.
The decision of the TGI fell: the judges of the summary proceedings gave satisfaction to twelve of the applicants, thus recognizing for these victims a “prejudice of anxiety”. The Servier laboratories are therefore ordered to pay them 1,500 euros in provisions for compensation.
This prejudice of anxiety was based on precise facts in particular, “a binding medical follow-up in the two years following” the end of the prescription of the drug or its marketing “and beyond, with regard to the risk which cannot be currently excluded from developing pulmonary arterial hypertension “, justified the magistrates, taken up by AFP.
Anxiety harm used for asbestos victims
The 38 other applicants were dismissed because they were driven only by “the sole fear of developing a serious illness”, was explained at the hearing.
Servier laboratories are considering the possibility of appealing this decision.
The prejudice of anxiety has already been used in 2010, particularly for asbestos victims. It had been defined by the Court of Cassation as “resulting from a situation of permanent concern about the risk of a disease being declared at any time.
To read also: Mediator: more than 1000 claims accepted
Mediator: the manifesto of the 30 against Servier
