Euronews reported on 29 March that Servier Laboratories, the second largest French pharmaceutical company, was found guilty of manslaughter and aggravated deception based on a drug accused of causing thousands of deaths.
As quoted in the article: “6,500 plaintiffs had accused the company of putting profits ahead of patients’ lives by allowing its diabetes drug, Mediator, to be widely and irresponsibly prescribed as a diet pill.”
The guilty verdict came 11 years after a study published in 2010 showed that the drug, created to help with diabetes, was being taken by millions of people as an appetite suppressant for some three decades.
The judge of the trial said the pharmaceutical giant had “undermined confidence in the health system… Despite the knowledge they had of the risks incurred for many years… they never took the necessary measures and thus deceived consumers.”
She added, “The mere suspicion of such risks” should have forced the French company “to inform patients and health professionals, particularly in the instructions packaged with the drugs.”
Yet, the judge imposed a fine of only 2.7 million euros, a fraction of what plaintiffs sued for. Plaintiffs are asking for damages totaling one billion euros. While one of their attorneys pointed out the important legal victory after so many years of trial, he said his clients are appealing the financial awards part of the decision.
Dr. Jean-Phillippe Seta, an executive with the company, received a four-year suspended prison sentence, was fined 90,600 euros, and will have to pay millions of euros to victims.
Concerns about the diabetes pill being taken to lose weight have been a concern since 1998 when a doctor raised the issue but said in court testimony he was “bullied into retracting them.”
While Servier Laboratories was well aware of the controversy, “It took an independent investigation by another worried French doctor before the company suspended sales in its main market in France in 2009.”
TRENDPOST: We note this article to further illustrate the deadliness and so-called “after effects” the Big Pharma drug lords push on the people and, as evidenced by the mass vaccination of hundreds of millions, the public’s acceptance of believing what is told to them and the reluctance to “Think for Themselves.”
