The Administrative Tribunal of Paris has already held the State responsible for the Mediator case for 13 victims. Justice believes that the Medicines Agency should have withdrawn the product in 1999.
While the Mediator trial should open in 2015, thirteen victims of this drug have already obtained recognition by the courts of state responsibility, their lawyer, Me Martine Verdier, announced on Monday, August 11. Indeed, while the Administrative Tribunal of Paris had already rendered a first judgment on July 3 in this sense, twelve other similar court decisions have followed since. The court directly implicates the State for the faults committed by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM). The latter is in fact accused of not having withdrawn the drug from the market in 1999, since the side effects and dangerous of the drug. benfluorex, the active substance of Mediator, had started to make itself known.
Compensation should follow
Consequently, “the State is declared responsible for the possible harmful consequences for the absorption of the Mediator from June 7, 1999”, according to one of the decisions, consulted by Agence France Presse. And “these decisions pave the way for compensation,” said the victim’s lawyer to AFP.
Because as in July, justice has not ruled here on the financial demands of the victims. To establish the amount of compensation, the administrative court ordered medical expertise on the victims in order, in particular, “to rule on the causal link between the pathology described and exposure to the Mediator and to assess the physical or moral suffering. suffered, ”explained Martine Verdier.
These steps before administrative justice come in parallel with several criminal proceedings and “in no way exonerates the responsibility of Servier, on the contrary”, concluded the lawyer.
A “great trial in 2015”
As a reminder, marketed between 1976 and 2009, the Pick is an anti-diabetic that has largely been diverted to be prescribed as an appetite suppressant. In France, it could have caused more than 2,000 deaths by causing serious damage to the heart valves. For this reason, it is one of the most serious and high profile health scandals of recent years.
Finally, it should be noted that the decision of the Administrative Tribunal has no impact on the conduct of the “great trial” which will open in 2015, but it is the first to stress that the State cannot exempt itself from its responsibility, by designating the Servier laboratories as sole responsible.
Moreover, about twenty other cases must be examined in September by the Administrative Tribunal of Paris.
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