Drug vs diabetes generates two thousand deaths

• May 1, 2024

The French pharmaceutical group Servier will be charged with the death of 500 to two thousand people, due to the consumption of Mediator , a medicine to combat asymptomatic diabetes and the overweight . Also, he is accused of falsifying documents about the drug Protelos , which avoids osteoporosis , says the newspaper Liberation.

According to information from AFP, three judges currently accuse the company of deceit, homicide, involuntary injuries and fraud for preparing and distributing the Mediator . Apparently, patients can develop heart diseases when ingesting this medicine.

The drug was sold in France between 1976 and 2009, and was withdrawn from the market 11 years later, after knowing the first signs of danger. In addition, it was marketed in Spain and Italy until 2005 and in Portugal until 2009.

Two former researchers of the laboratory, Jean Charpentier and Jacques Dahault, assured that the characteristics to cut the appetite of the Mediator were not detailed to the authorities to present it as a antidiabetic and thus be able to obtain its authorization for the sale, according to the Liberation Tuesday and the newspaper Le Figaro.

On the other hand, an inspection report of Servier's pharmacovigilance system, written by the French Agency for Health Security and Health Products (AFSSAPS), highlights that the laboratory would have hidden the side effects linked "to Protelos.

Servier (which in 2010 recorded a turnover of three thousand 700 million euros and has 20 thousand employees) committed "serious violations" to obtain authorization to sell that drug launched in 2004.

In a statement the pharmaceutical company "energetically denied the accusations of the newspaper Liberation "He specified that" the two cases of death of patients who were taking Protelos and who suffered a skin reaction, were recorded in the pharmacovigilance reports. "