What is going on ? Withdrawn from sale since 2009, the Mediator made talk about him again. This drug, from Servier laboratories, prescribed first to overweight diabetics and then to overweight patients, would have caused the death of 500 to 1000 people in France.
This is indeed revealed by an investigation by the National Health Insurance Fund, updated by Le Figaro. The Mediator could have serious side effects by causing heart valve disease andpulmonary hypertension.
Polemic ? This drug, derived from amphetamines, will have taken many years before being suspended: “it is 33 years after its marketing and ten years after the first pharmacovigilance declaration in France that the Mediator was suspended” explains Le Figaro. Even though another drug chemically close to the Mediator, Isomeride, had been withdrawn from sale in 1997. For many years, doctors had tried to warn against this drug, but in vain. Today, the Health Insurance investigation is falling like a stone in the pond.
In the end, who risks what? In November 2009, 300,000 people were treated with Mediator in France. These patients are therefore advised to consult a cardiologist and possibly perform an ultrasound of the heart.