Published on
Updated
Reading 3 min.
The Mediator appeal trial aggravated the sanctions imposed against the Servier laboratory. Found guilty of all the offenses with which he was accused, he will have to repay more than 415 million euros to Social Security organizations and mutual insurance companies.
Servier laboratories were ordered on appeal to pay a total fine of more than 9 million euros and to reimburse more than 415 million euros to Social Security organizations and mutual insurance companies.
An appeal requested by the Paris prosecutor’s office
An antidiabetic drug widely marketed as an appetite suppressant, the drug Mediator, manufactured by Servier laboratories, is the cause of at least 500 deaths. In 2008, it was the pulmonologist and whistleblower Irène Frachon who revealed the scandal linked to this drug.
In March 2021, following a long ten-month trial, including two confinements in 2020, the court announced a fine of 2.718 million euros for Servier laboratories for “aggravated deception and homicide and unintentional injury“. The former number two of the firm, Jean-Philippe Seta, was sentenced for the same facts to four years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 90,600 euros. The Paris Criminal Court ruled that they were “the authors of a fraud of considerable and unprecedented magnitude, of which thousands of patients were victims”, knowing that they “had, from 1995, sufficient information to become aware of the mortal risks” related to this medicine. But if the court recognized the cover-ups, it did not accept the fraudulent nature of the maneuvers. Thus, the offense of fraud was not upheld.
Following this partial acquittal, the Paris public prosecutor’s office decided to appeal on April 6, 2021. The prosecution’s requisitions had been much more severe. The Servier laboratory also appealed. Six legal entities and one natural person will therefore be retried before the Paris Court of Appeal for fraud, deception, homicide and involuntary injuries, as well as for fraudulently obtaining an administrative document. This new trial delivered its verdict on December 20.
Servier found guilty of all crimes, including fraud
The Servier laboratory was found guilty of all the offenses with which it was accused, including those of fraud and improperly obtaining marketing, for which it was acquitted at first instance. Furthermore, the court of appeal confirmed his guilt for the offenses of aggravated deception and homicide and involuntary injury.
For the first time in its history, Health Insurance filed a criminal complaint in 2011 for fraud concerning an industrial pharmaceutical specialty. This aimed to obtain compensation for the damage linked to the cost of coverage by the General Medicines Scheme between 1995 and 2010, as well as the sums linked to the systematic echocardiographies to screen for valvular disease carried out. All health insurance funds therefore appealed the judgment rendered on March 29, 2021.
Health Insurance and victims welcome this verdict
Health Insurance welcomes this verdict in a press release: “In its decision, the Court of Appeal granted all of the requests made by the health insurance funds with a recognized loss of €415 million for all compulsory and complementary plans. More than 10 years after the start of the procedure, 7 months of hearing in 1st instance and 6 months of appeal trial, the conviction of the Servier laboratories is a real victory for all the victims and the Health Insurance who brought this fight“.
It is also a relief for the victims, as Charles-Joseph Oudin, one of the lawyers for the more than 7,000 civil parties, declares: “This is a huge victory for the victims that I represent and defend since the first complaint, in November 2010.“.
According to Le Monde, “7,650 people became civil parties to the trial, most of them in the deception aspect. Some 5,000 other cases for homicides or involuntary injuries are still being investigated by the Paris prosecutor’s office.“. The Mediator should therefore be at the origin of other lawsuits against the Servier laboratory.