French pharma firm guilty of fraud, manslaughter over weight loss pill: court

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A flag bearing the logo of the French pharmaceutical giant Les Laboratoires Servier flies at half in front of the laboratory building of the group in Gily, near Orleans, following the death of the group’s founder Jacques Servier. Servier, the founder of Les Laboratoires Servier, died on April 16, 2014 at the age of 92. The French French pharmaceutical group is at the centre of an ongoing trial in which the company is accused of misrepresenting a diabetes drug that may have caused up to 2,000 deaths. AFP PHOTO / GUILLAUME SOUVANT (Photo by GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP)

PARIS, France (AFP) — A French court on Monday found pharma giant Servier guilty of “aggravated fraud” and “involuntary manslaughter” over a diabetes and weight loss pill blamed for hundreds of deaths in one of the country’s biggest recent health scandals.

The drug Mediator was on the market for 33 years and used by about five million people before being pulled in 2009 over fears it could cause serious heart problems — more than a decade after such concerns had first been raised.

Servier’s former deputy boss was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of four years, and the court fined the company 2.7 million euros ($3.2 million).

France’s medicines agency was fined 303,000 euros for its role in the scandal.

© Agence France-Presse