PARIS. French pharmaceutical laboratory Servier was convicted today, at the end of a wide-ranging trial in France, of “multiple culpable homicide” and “aggravated fraud” in the scandal of its anti-hunger drug “Mediator”, accused of being responsible for the deaths of 1,500 -2,100 people.
The Servier laboratories were sentenced to pay a fine of 2.7 million euros: “Despite having been aware of the risks for many years – said the president of the court, Sylvie Daunis – they never took the necessary measures, and consequently deceived “consumers of the Mediator.
Marketed in France in 1976 as an adjunct drug in the treatment of diabetes, but used everywhere as an anti-hunger, Mediator was prescribed to approximately 5 million people during its 33 years on the market, until its retirement in November 2009. I Servier laboratories, continued the president of the court, “have undermined trust in the health system”.
Jean-Philippe Seta, former number 2 of the group and former right hand of the powerful Jacques Servier, who died in 2014, was sentenced to 4 years in prison with parole. Sentence to 303,000 euros for “manslaughter caused by negligence” also for the National Security Agency
drug (ANSM), held responsible for delaying the marketing of the Mediator.
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