David Montagné, edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez 06:21, January 10, 2023

This Monday opened the appeal trial of one of the biggest health scandals of the last decade, the Mediator affair.

There are still just as many civil parties, 7,600 in total, and they intend to have Laboratoires Servier condemned in full after these six months of hearings.

This is one of the most resounding health scandals that France has known: the Mediator affair.

The side effects of this antidiabetic drug, prescribed as an appetite suppressant until 2009, led to the death of several hundred patients.

The Servier laboratory, manufacturer of the Mediator, was found guilty of aggravated deception and manslaughter and involuntary injury after a first trial which ended in 2021. The group has since appealed, as has the Paris prosecutor's office.

This Monday afternoon therefore opened the second trial of this case.

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Towards a full condemnation of laboratories?

In the hall of the great trials of the Palais de Justice in Paris, a hundred victims were seated on the benches of the courtroom.

Most are elderly, with serious pathologies.

They listened carefully to Olivier Géron, the President of the Court, to explain that they are in total more than 7,600 civil parties.

Far too many to name them all.

“That would be tedious,” soberly indicated the president.

It is thus their lawyers, more than 300, who are responsible for representing them.

In turn, they stood up and mourned the deaths of some of their customers.

"There are even some who will die during the hearing", warns one of them.

Words that echo the long years of procedure and the effects of the Mediator on the health of patients.

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The latter still want to continue their fight against Servier Laboratories.

They want a full condemnation of the laboratories, including for fraud, which the Court did not retain during the first hearing.

They will find in front of them Jean-Philippe Seta, the former number two of the founder of the group, Jacques Servier having died in 2014. He will maintain, during these six months of hearing, that he was not aware of the dangerousness of his medicine.