Out of 1784 files of patients treated with the Mediator which, to date, have passed through the hands of experts from the National Office for Compensation for Medical Accidents (Oniam), 293 have received a positive notice of compensation. This is only a progress report because in total, this college of independent experts will have to examine 8,350 requests. The high percentage of cases that have been rejected is explained by the fact that only the two pathologies for which the Mediator’s responsibility is recognized, give rise to a right to compensation. These are valvular heart disease and pulmonary arterial hypertension.
For each of the cases that received a positive opinion, the experts made an assessment of the damage suffered but did not quantify this damage. “It is then up to the Servier laboratory to make a compensation proposal to each of the victims”, explains Alain Legoux, president of Oniam.
Last fall, a study published in a European journal intended for cardiologists, indicated that about 7% of people who took the Picks were at risk of developing valve disease, a disease of the heart. Valvular heart disease can be recognized by certain symptoms such as shortness of breath, heart palpitations, fatigue or a murmur in the heart. A few months earlier, a forensic report presented by the Paris prosecutor’s office concluded that between 200 and 300 deaths could be attributable to this drug. In the long term, the number of victims could be much higher, from 1,300 to 1,800.
