A former senator has been appearing since Monday in Paris for having modified a report on the Mediator in order to minimize the responsibility of the Servier laboratories under the influence of a consultant from the group, tried alongside him with the ex-number 2 of Servier.
Read also: End of the trial-river of the Mediator health scandal, judgment on March 29, 2021
The political aspect of this health scandal is centered on the “
clandestine visit
” of this consultant from Servier to the Senate, before the publication of a report on the drug held responsible for hundreds of deaths.
If the investigation had revealed the murky links between the firm and the political world, Marie-Thérèse Hermange, former UMP senator, is the only one elected to be tried.
This part of the case had been separated from the Mediator river trial - opened in September 2019, interrupted during confinement and closed in early July - one of the defendants having been blocked outside France because of the health crisis.
At the beginning of 2011, a little over a year after the withdrawal of the Mediator from the market, the Senate launched a fact-finding mission on the scandal.
Mrs Hermange is the rapporteur.
She is often in contact with Claude Griscelli, a former director of Inserm whom she has known for 25 years and who “
advises
” her on this technical file.
Mr. Griscelli, 84, was at the time a consultant for Servier for 10 years and paid up to 90,000 euros per year, which she says she does not know.
One evening, the court recalls, she asks him to come to the Senate to help her with the report.
A "
clandestine visit
", of which Mrs. Hermange will not inform her collaborators, and which Mr. Griscelli will tell on the telephone to number 2 of Servier, then tapped: "
I didn't give a damn about things that didn't matter. but of course I looked at key sentences, important, which concerned the responsibility of Servier,
”he says.
“
I changed a lot of things
”.
Read also: Mediator trial: € 8.2 million fine required against the Servier group
"
Bravo
", replies Jean-Philippe Seta, tried for influence peddling alongside Mr. Griscelli.
"On the other hand,
I have greatly accentuated the criticisms that can be made against Afssaps
" (now the ANSM, the national drug safety agency).
“
Very well,
” Mr. Seta replies.
"
Really, I don't even need to give you any advice, you anticipate everything, it's perfect
".
Sitting in her chair, Mrs. Hermange shakes her head in disapproval.
"
I am overwhelmed,
" said this 73-year-old woman with the impeccable bun.
“
If I had known that Claude Griscelli had any link with a laboratory, I would never have consulted him
”.
Mr Griscelli and Mr Seta deny attempting to influence Ms Hermange.
Their defense also argues that the changes made to the report are "
minor
".
The trial is scheduled to continue until Friday.
The judgment of the main part of the Mediator is expected in March.