"Unfair accusations" opposed to "the reality of the case": on the last day Monday of the river trial of the Mediator health scandal in Paris, the defense of Servier laboratories tried, for the last time, to demonstrate the absence of any fault criminal.
Beginning his acquittal, one of the pharmaceutical group's lawyers, François de Castro, asked the criminal court "one last little effort" when the trial opened months earlier, on September 23.
"I will not be brief"
"I will not be brief," he warns, announcing that he intends to return to "26 events in regulatory history" of the Mediator, proving according to him that the Servier laboratories were not aware of the toxicity and the risks of this. drug.
Put on the market in 1976 as an adjunct to the treatment of diabetes, but largely diverted as an appetite suppressant, the Mediator was prescribed to approximately five million people during the 33 years of its marketing until its withdrawal in November 2009. It is held responsible for hundreds of deaths.
The prosecution denounces the "cynical choice" of Servier laboratories
On June 23, the prosecution called to sanction the "cynical choice" of a firm having privileged "its financial interests" to the health of the consumers of the drug, despite "the risks that it could not ignore" and that it "Deliberately" concealed.
A total of more than 10 million euros in fines were required against six group companies, tried in particular for “aggravated deception”, “swindle” and “homicides and involuntary injuries”.
A fine of 200,000 euros has been requested against the Medicines Safety Agency, judged alongside the laboratories for having delayed suspending the marketing of the Mediator, while first alerts on its dangerousness were issued in 1995 and that first cases serious heart disease was reported in France in 1999.
"A discard system on" Servier
"These requisitions are extremely severe because they do not take into account the reality of the case and the exchange of information between the Servier laboratories and the health authorities", judge François de Castro.
The Medicines Agency has admitted a "share of responsibility" in this "drama", one of the worst French health scandals and does not seek total release.
"I consider that the Medicines Agency has not committed any criminal offense", launches the laboratory lawyer, proposing to "(be) the defender of the health authority", before tackling their "system of defense which is rather a discard system on »Servier.
Delivering his observations “in bulk” to the court, Me de Castro stressed that the Medicines Agency had “the essential data in hand, at the latest in 1999”.
As early as 1995, it had placed the Mediator under pharmacovigilance investigation, due to its chemical relationship with two appetite suppressants from Servier, Isomeride and Ponderal, withdrawn from the market due to their serious undesirable effects.
A scandal which must "contribute to the emergence of a risk signal"
A drug has never been withdrawn from the market for belonging to "the same chemical family", notes François de Castro. Likewise, the “Agency for Risk Assessment” by the Medicines Agency suffers from “no atypism”: other drugs with “much more alarmist” risk signals were suspended even later.
But for the defender of the laboratories, this investigation, then that launched at European level at the end of the 1990s, should "contribute to the emergence of a risk signal", they finally "reassured all the players" on the Mediator , "The only one under national investigation".
The Medicines Agency "knew nothing about this medicine, it knew", still supports Servier's lawyer. "I don't want the court to be able to close the proceedings by thinking that the Servier laboratories are in denial. They do not think they are blameless in this affair, "assures François de Castro." The first criticism they make is that they were wait-and-see. They are aware that they were bad on the risk assessment, relying on the health authority, "said the firm's board. His colleague Hervé Temime was to plead after him. The court will then put its judgment under advisement.
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