The Mediator trial enters its final stretch. From this Tuesday, the public prosecutor's office will make its requisitions, over two days, then will come the time for pleadings. The trial will end on July 6, and the judgment will be put under advisement early next year.
This extraordinary trial began on September 23 and was interrupted two months because of the Covid. It carries the hopes of 4,600 plaintiffs, victims of this drug which caused more than 500 deaths by valvulopathies of the heart, and numerous hospitalizations, whereas it was presented as an ordinary anti-diabetic drug.
The court will have to answer key questions: to what extent were the Servier laboratories, its manufacturer, aware of the dangers of the product? If so, why did they hide them? Is the mobile purely commercial, because of the colossal profits linked to its appetite suppressant effect, which appealed to people who wanted to lose weight? How is it that the Medicines Agency has seen almost nothing, for 33 years, when it was put on the market?
Unsurprising Hearings
During often technical hearings, there were no twists and turns, as if everyone was playing a score already heard, during the instruction. The victims, and the “big voices” - notably the whistleblower Irène Frachon - exposed a drama whose ins and outs were known.
Servier Laboratories, through their leaders, presented "their regrets for this considerable drama" to the victims. A change of line compared to the total denial of the time of the founder of the group, Jacques Servier, died in 2014 at 92 years, who swept all the accusations en bloc.
Their lawyers, however, continued to plead "relentlessness" against the group. White hair and a tanned complexion, imperturbable in his waisted suit, Jean-Philippe Seta, the main manager at the material time, never gave up on his calm.
Doctors paid by the lab
The president of the court, Sylvie Daunis, however summoned many witnesses to the stand, who, for the most part, described a not very shiny system put in place by the pharmaceutical group allowing it to keep its dangerous product on the market, thanks to a strategy of influence in the upper spheres of health administration, and with "expert" doctors, in fact paid by the laboratory. A version disputed by the company, which returns the ball to the public authorities which had the power to withdraw this drug from the market earlier, and in fact did nothing.
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But in the end the Mediator trial will end in a quarrel of - very - big money. Indeed, the civil parties requested colossal damages. “We are claiming 1 billion euros in damages: 500 million euros to compensate physical victims; 500 million euros for health insurance funds and mutuals which have paid reimbursements for 33 years, when they should not have done so given the nature of this product, ”summarizes lawyer Charles Joseph- Oudin.
It was indeed shown at the helm that the group had deployed treasures of ingenuity with the public authorities so that its medicine is not reimbursed, which assured it a certain popularity with doctors and patients.
While the figure of 1 billion strikes the spirits, the civil parties refrain from asking for an astronomical sum: "We must make an example, otherwise these white-collar delinquents will start again. 1 billion euros is less than twice the turnover of the Mediator, which is 579 million euros. Servier has so far only paid 162 million euros to the victims as part of the compensation fund already set up. For the moment, they are still largely profitable, ”adds Charles Joseph-Oudin. According to several sources, the Servier laboratories have provisioned 2 billion euros to cope with an extraordinary financial penalty.