This Monday, March 29, Servier laboratories have just been found guilty of “aggravated deception” in the emblematic trial of the Mediator. The opportunity to publish the good sheets of “10,000 deaths on prescription” (Cherche midi editor), where Dr. Sauveur Boukris recalls that there are still on the market drugs prescribed by doctors who are diverted from their indication.
- Servier laboratories are found guilty of “aggravated deception” and sentenced to a fine of 2.7 million euros.
- The drug agency (ANSM) is sentenced to a fine of 300,000 euros for negligence in monitoring the Mediator.
- The Mediator is accused of having caused the death of 1,500 to 2,100 people.
“Medication misuse is the use of a psychoactive drug for self-medication, entertainment, or performance enhancement, whether prescribed or not, and outside of generally accepted medical guidelines. It can be part of polydrug use. »
Another subject that is little talked about and which leads to deaths. In the past, there have always been drugs diverted from their use. The most spectacular example is that of MEDIATOR, which was presented as an antidiabetic and which was diverted from its indication to make it an “appetite suppressant”, causing hundreds of deaths. It has been prescribed for years to over 5 million people. CYTOTEC for example, an antiulcer, was widely used in gynecology for abortions. Likewise the DIANE 35 pill was used against acne. It was taken off the market in January 2013 after being accused of being linked to the deaths of four patients in 25 years.
Falsified medicines or medicrime
There are still medicines prescribed by doctors on the market that are diverted from their indication. This is the case of drugs against pain: opiates, codeine and tramadol, drugs recommended for sleep disorders or anxiety such as STILNOX (zolpidem) or RITALIN. Painkillers, psychostimulants, hypnotics and sedatives and tranquilizers are the drugs most misused. They are diverted for entertainment purposes, or to improve performance.
medical nomadism
These drugs are normally obtained through the doctor who prescribes them on a prescription. Then the patient goes to get them from his pharmacist. “Medical nomadism” or “doctor shopping” consists of using several prescribers over a determined period of time. We know of patients who have more than five prescribing physicians. This practice concerns both people who need large quantities of drugs for their own consumption and those whose objective is to resell them informally or to exchange them for other substances.
Trafficking in these drugs is very lucrative. Between the falsifications of prescription and the diversion of medical prescriptions, the phenomenon is considerable. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA7), drug diversion generates more than $25 billion in the United States each year. In France, surveys of the general population do not, or only rarely, address the misuse or abuse of medicines. It is based on data from the Health Insurance. The analyzes show that whatever the product, the proportion of subjects at the origin of diversion of drugs by multiplication of prescribers is low, but that the quantity obtained by this minority can reach very high levels.
To learn more, read “10,000 prescription deaths” (Looking for noon editor), by Dr. Sauveur Boukris.
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