Paris (AFP)

They have undergone heavy operations or live with the "anxiety" of falling ill: victims of the Mediator told Monday, at the trial in Paris, of this health scandal their "suffering" but also their "hatred" of the Servier laboratories.

After more than four months of debate, this is one of the last times that the criminal court hears the victims of this drug accused of causing serious heart damage.

Presented as an anti-diabetic but widely prescribed as an appetite suppressant for the 33 years of its commercialization, it is held responsible for hundreds of deaths.

Isabelle took Mediator for "eleven long years", until she retired from the market in November 2009. Her doctor had presented her as the "miracle product" for her overweight. "I haven't lost any pounds," said the ex-La Poste counter, very moved at the helm.

She who had a "sports heart" will be operated in 2007 for a "double replacement" of the heart valves, but will still be prescribed Mediator for two years.

To his illness were added a divorce, several depressions, around fifty work stoppages and part-time work with loss of wages. "Your whole life is screwed up," said Isabelle.

Sophie came to testify for her mother Danielle, who died at the age of 63 following a "double valvulopathy", after a "calvary" of four years. She does not mince her words against the Servier laboratories, to which she reproaches a "venal attitude".

And deplores the "indecent, abusive words" of the former number two of the pharmaceutical group Jean-Philippe Seta, who spoke before the court of "errors of evaluation and appreciation". "A mark of additional contempt," says Sophie.

"There is so much hatred and suffering", assures her after Chantal, who took Mediator for two years "to lose weight".

Like her, others express their "anxiety" about falling seriously ill or dying, as well as their "distrust" towards drugs and the medical profession.

- "Guinea pig" of the Servier laboratories -

The testimony of Chantal Audu, 59, is more "atypical". She is one of some 400 participants in a clinical trial by Servier laboratories requested by health authorities to assess the heart condition of patients who have taken Mediator.

The results in the fall of 2009 from this study, called Regulate, will greatly contribute to the withdrawal of the drug.

When the scandal of the Mediator broke out, this Landaise did not feel "concerned", despite the concern of her cardiologist.

In 2006, she had given her consent for a "blind protocol" to treat her diabetes, on the advice of her general practitioner, "a friend" with whom she often shared "seafood platters".

"For him, this test was great," she recalls. The name of the "Mediator" is never mentioned, nor the risks involved. When she was diagnosed with heart failure in 2011, she struggled "six months" to recover her medical records and noted, "surprised", that her last ultrasound of the heart simply "disappeared".

"Victim without knowing it" of the Mediator, Chantal Audu has "the feeling of having been a guinea pig" of the Servier laboratories. Who, she says, offered "no follow-up" after the clinical trial.

For this "deception", his lawyer Jean-Christophe Coubris will claim, as for the hundreds of other victims he represents, an amount of 100,000 euros in damages.

Servier laboratories appear in particular for "aggravated deception" and "homicides and involuntary injuries", a last qualification also retained against the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM, ex-Afssaps), prosecuted for having delayed suspending the Mediator.

Some 2,600 people had brought civil actions before the opening of the trial on September 23. A number likely to evolve until the indictment of the prosecution, scheduled for April 22.

The court will hear Thursday afternoon the former Minister of Health Xavier Bertrand.

From mid-February it will examine the suspected conflicts of interest alleged against former experts from the health authorities.

The trial is scheduled to end on April 30.

© 2020 AFP