Mediator (diabetes drug)

2023: Up to 2,100 people died due to Mediator drug

On December 20, 2023, an appeal court in France found the pharmaceutical company Servier guilty of fraud in the sale of the diabetic drug Mediator. According to various estimates, taking this medicine provoked the death of 500 to 2,100 people.

Mediator was developed in 1976 on the basis of the active substance benfluorex, which is close in structure to amphetamine. Initially, the drug was prescribed for overweight diabetics. However, it then began to be used to suppress appetite and prescribed to people wishing to lose weight. Subsequently, it turned out that Mediator causes serious heart problems, provoking deaths. The active struggle for the removal of Mediator from sale since 2007 was led by pulmonologist Irene Frachon, who published a large-scale study on the negative effect of the drug on the cardiovascular system.

Court of Appeal in France finds pharmaceutical company Servier guilty of fraud in sale of diabetic drug Mediator

In March 2021, the trial court found Servier guilty of deceiving consumers, but the company was acquitted of some charges. In accordance with the verdict of the Court of Appeal of December 20, 2023, Servier was found guilty of fraud and unlawful receipt of permission to sell the drug. Court documents say the company was aware of the drug's side effects but continued to supply it to the market. The court found that Servier hid the risk of harm to health from patients and doctors.

As a result, Servier was levied a penalty of over €430 million. In particular, the company will have to pay a fine of €9 million euros and reimburse social security services €415.6 million. In addition, the company is obliged to pay €1 million in compensation for damage and reimburse legal costs in the amount of €5 million euros.^[1]

2021: Servier will pay 2.7 million euros in fines for the drug that caused the death of 2 thousand people

At the end of March 2021, a French court fined one of Servier the country's largest pharmaceutical companies 2.7 million euros, finding her guilty of deception and manslaughter of about 2 thousand people. Servier has been accused of concealing potentially fatal side effects of a reasonably popular drug for diabetics Mediator.

Servier's former chief executive Jean-Philippe Seta has been given a suspended four-year prison sentence and is also ordered to pay a €90,600 fine. Servier was fined 2.7 million euros, and the company must pay compensation in the amount of 158 million euros to 6.5 thousand injured civilians who acted as plaintiffs. 21 defendants and more than 6.5 thousand plaintiffs participated in the court case.

Servier will pay a fine of 2.7 million euros for the death of 2 thousand people from the drug for diabetics Mediator

Servier gave permission to universally use Mediator as a remedy for type 2 diabetes, which poses deadly risks to human health. Servier's lawyers argued that the company was unaware of the risks posed by Mediator until 2009.

The amphetamine derivative has been recorded as a treatment for diabetes, but it has been widely prescribed as an appetite suppressor to help people lose weight. The active chemical Mediator is known as Benfluorex. Between 1976 and November 2009, when the substance was banned in France, long after access to it was banned in Spain and Italy, it was used by about 5 million people. In the UK and US, the substance Benfluorex has never been authorised.

France's health minister noted that drinking Benfluorex caused damage to the heart valve, killing at least 500 people, but other studies suggest the death toll could be around 2,000. Thousands more patients were left with cardiovascular problems after consuming Mediator.^[2]

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