3 years ago
A French drug maker has been found guilty of deceiving and involuntary manslaughter over a weight loss pill at the center of a major health scandal.
The drug Mediator was developed for use in overweight diabetics and was in the market for 33 years. Though, it was withdrawn in the year 2009 over concerns to cause serious heart problems.
Hundreds of people are believed to have died as a result of the drug. Around five million people were prescribed the medicine over the course of three decades, despite various warnings over its side effects.
Thousands of complaints were filed against the drug in 2019. But Drug maker Servier had denied any knowledge of Mediator's side effects but a court on Monday issued it with a fine of €2.7m (£2.3m, $3.2m).
The company's former deputy chairman, Jean-Philippe Seta, has been given a four-year suspended prison sentence. France's medical regulator, was fined more than €300,000 for its role in the scandal.
The judge found the body had "seriously failed" in its duties, according to the AFP news agency. A number of other European countries, including Italy and Spain, banned Mediator in the early 2000s but in France, it continued to be offered to diabetics and other patients as an appetite suppressant.
One study concluded that 500 deaths could be linked to Mediator between 1976 and 2009. A second one has made the figure at 2,000.
