French killer slimming drug trial opens
The trial started Tuesday of bosses of a French company that marketed a drug believed to have cost up to 1,800 lives. The drug, Mediator, was often prescribed as a slimming aid, although it was originally developed an anti-diabetic medicine.
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Jacques Servier, the 91-year-old boss of the Servier pharmaceutical company, and four top managers were in the dock, accused of knowingly marketing a deadly drug.
An experts’ report published in April estimates that between 1,300 and 1,800 people died due to valvular heart disease caused by Mediator, which was on sale in France between 1976 and 2009.
About 700 people have joined the case, which is taking place at the same time as an official investigation by Paris prosecutors continues.
They claim that Servier and his colleagues deliberately concealed the properties of Mediator’s principal ingredient, Benfluorex, deemed responsible for valvular heart disease and pulmonary hypertension, a rare and incurable condition.
Citing a report by the Igas watchdog, the plaintiffs argue that the drug should have been withdrawn in 1999.
The defendants argue that the case if “of great complexity” and deny that they lied to patients.
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