Since Monday, January 9, the case of the Mediator, named after this drug from Servier laboratories, is again before the courts. This drug is responsible for the death of approximately 2,000 people in France, and serious cardiac sequelae in thousands of others. Servier Laboratories had been found guilty at first instance of aggravated deception, homicide and involuntary injuries. The Court of Appeal will reconsider their liability.
In this case, the Servier laboratories concealed the risks of the Mediator which had been known at least since 1995, the judges had pointed out. The group was notably sentenced to a fine of 2.7 million euros and to pay 180 million euros in damages to more than 7,000 civil party victims. On the other hand, he had been acquitted of the head of social security and mutual insurance fraud. While the Court of Appeal is reviewing the responsibility of the Servier laboratories, on this first day of hearing, around thirty victims or relatives of victims made the trip.
Marie-Josée, in her fifties, came from Marseille to attend the trial, not for herself, but for her mother, who suffered from serious heart damage caused by the Mediator, which she had taken for ten years: “ She had difficulty breathing, difficulty walking and she couldn’t take three steps without getting out of breath, until the day she went to see a cardiologist who told her that she had to be operated on because her valves were destroyed. The first operation took place in 2015 and he had a heart valve replaced. On February 10, 2021, she was to have her second heart valve re-operated, but she left before, in her hospital bed, all alone. And for that, I will go all the way. »
Pending tougher sanctions against Servier laboratories
She hopes that this appeal trial will lead to firmer sanctions against Servier laboratories, and in particular the group’s former number two, who was sentenced at first instance to a four-year suspended prison sentence.
” I want them to be punished for the wrong they did, they got nothing, believes Marie-Josée. I want them to get jail time and admit they killed. There will still be people who will die as a result of the Mediator, long after. »
Since the end of the first trial in 2020, several people, like Marie-Josée’s mother, have died from the consequences caused by the Mediator.
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