Irene Frachon, who testified against the company, with photographs of people who died after taking MediatorVictims voiced anger after executives of a French drug company escaped jail despite being found guilty of manslaughter and deception in connection with a medicine that caused hundreds of deaths. Paris criminal court ruled that Servier, one of France’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies, had deliberately covered up the risks of heart disease linked to Mediator, a drug prescribed to more than five million people for both diabetes and weight loss for 33 years. SponsoredThe medicine, which was never authorised in the UK, was withdrawn in France in 2009, 14 years after the first alerts were raised and four years after Benfluorex, its active chemical substance, had been banned in Spain. The court was told that at least 500 people had died as a result of

Source: The Times March 29, 2021 21:56 UTC