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It is a trial scheduled to last 7 months, until the end of next April. The first hearing took place Monday, September 23 in the trial of the Mediator, the name of this drug held responsible for hundreds of deaths and withdrawn from the French market in late 2009. Mainly involved: the group Servier who marketed it during 33 years old and the National Agency for Drug Safety, accused of not having played his role as policeman of the drug.
Even before the start of the hearing, the extraordinary nature of this trial was flagrant. Because despite the heavy stakes, the atmosphere at first resembled that of a back to school when in a vast hubbub, the more than 300 lawyers registered with the usher. It was also necessary to leave the hundred witnesses, the victims who had moved, and dozens of journalists between the main hall and the three retransmission rooms. But the seriousness quickly returned to the arrival of the court.
The President immediately made a point of clarification: " 10 years, almost to the day after the suspension of the Mediator (...) we are aware of the feeling of impatience and frustration that everyone can have. (...) But the court is not competent to say how many people have died. The question for the court is whether the accused have committed the alleged offenses, say the law, in all the aridity that implies, "she said.
More than an hour to read the names of the victims
The silence became even more solemn when the present defendants, mainly from the Servier group and the policeman of the drug, declined their identity: at the bar, 7 men and 2 women with gray or white hair, aged 61 to 83 years. Then began the long litany: first reading the charges, identifying each witness but also the impressive list of victims, hundreds of names read by the judge and his assessors for over an hour .
To approach the substance, it will be necessary to wait because several questions of form were asked and the audience of this Tuesday has already been canceled to allow the parties to sharpen their arguments.
#Mediator Admittedly, in ten years, health agencies infiltrated by pharmaco-delinquents have been re-founded. But #Servier continues to sell drugs, influence decision makers, blackmail employment ... and sell controversial drugs #Pneumorel Stop! pic.twitter.com/lIY3cRPMUs
Michèle Rivasi 🌍 (@MicheleRivasi) September 23, 2019