On Monday March 16, the Mediator trial, named after this drug from the Servier laboratories, held responsible for hundreds of deaths, was halted precipitately due to the confinement. Eleven weeks later, the hearing resumed this Tuesday, June 2 at the Batignolles courthouse (17th arrondissement of Paris).
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In order to respect the rules of physical distance and limit the number of people present, the room has been refurbished: one seat out of two is unusable for lawyers and defendants, three seats out of four for the public, according to a journalist from France Inter present at the hearing.
Trial scheduled for July 6
Eleven legal persons and twelve natural persons - all over the age of 65 - appear before the court. Some 2,600 victims, with or without bodily harm, were civil parties before the opening of the proceedings. Hundreds of lawyers are involved in the case.
Open on September 23, 2019 before the Paris Criminal Court, this river trial was originally scheduled to last seven months and end in April 2020. The coronavirus decided otherwise: the end of the trial is now scheduled for July 6. The pleadings of the civil parties are scheduled to start on June 9. The prosecution's requisitions are expected at the end of June. Then the floor will be given to the defense.
Ten years after the scandal
The trial is held ten years after the revelation of this health scandal by the Brest pulmonologist Irène Frachon. A central question animated the debates: how could this drug, presented as an anti-diabetic but largely diverted as an appetite suppressant, have been prescribed for 33 years despite the repeated alerts on its dangerousness?
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Servier laboratories are accused of knowingly concealing the appetite suppressants and dangerous side effects of Mediator. The pharmaceutical group, which is notably prosecuted for “aggravated deception”, “swindle” and “homicides and involuntary injuries”, tirelessly defended itself, highlighting “the absence of risk signal identified before 2009” , year of its withdrawal from the market.
Deemed to have neglected the alerts on the dangerousness of the Mediator and delayed in suspending it, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM, ex-Afssaps) said to assume "its share of responsibility" in the health drama, and will not plead the relax. Several former officials and experts from the health authorities are also being prosecuted, suspected of having been under the "influence" of the Servier laboratories. They denied any conflict of interest with the firm.
