French Court Slaps 2.7 Mln Euro Fine on Maker of ‘Death Drug’

A French court found pharma giant Servier guilty of aggravated fraud and involuntary manslaughter in the Mediator case. (AFP)
A French court found pharma giant Servier guilty of aggravated fraud and involuntary manslaughter in the Mediator case. (AFP)
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French Court Slaps 2.7 Mln Euro Fine on Maker of ‘Death Drug’

A French court found pharma giant Servier guilty of aggravated fraud and involuntary manslaughter in the Mediator case. (AFP)
A French court found pharma giant Servier guilty of aggravated fraud and involuntary manslaughter in the Mediator case. (AFP)

A decade after the so-called “Mediator scandal”, a court in Paris announced its final verdict against the Servier Laboratoires and the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM).

The court stated that the Mediator drug made by Servier caused the death of 3,000 women from heart failure. The court found the drugmaker guilty of fraud for hiding the side effects of Mediator licensed as a diabetes treatment, while over five million women used it as an appetite suppressant to lose weight.

Servier Laboratoires was fined 2.7 million euros but cleared of its charges for fraud.

Sylvie Daunis, who presided over the ruling, said: “Despite the knowledge they had of the risks incurred for many years, they never took the necessary measures and thus deceived consumers of Mediator.” She added that the company undermined confidence in the French health system.

The company's chairman, Jacques Servier died in 2014 before the opening of the case. Servier's former deputy boss, Jean-Philippe Seta was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of four years. The court on also fined France's drug regulator ANSM 303,000 euros.

The plaintiffs had sought one billion euros in damages, but the general prosecution gave a cap of 9 million euros, the highest sum they can request in accordance with French law.

Lawyer Jean-Christophe Coubris dismissed the figure, saying the sum can be earned within six hours of work at the giant Servier Laboratoires. Coubris, who specializes in medical malpractice, represented 2,600 plaintiffs including families of dead victims and individuals who were severely damaged by the drug.

The case was opened in the summer of 2019 and ended a year later. The final ruling came after 517 hours of hearings that focused on one fundamental question: How did doctors keep prescribing Mediator for 33 years despite the constant warnings of its risks? The drug was withdrawn from pharmacies in 2009.



Trump Replaces Obama Portrait with Painting of... Himself

Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File
Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File
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Trump Replaces Obama Portrait with Painting of... Himself

Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File
Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File

Donald Trump took his rivalry with Barack Obama to the walls of the White House Friday, replacing a portrait of the former US president with one of himself surviving an assassination attempt.

The 78-year-old Republican moved the picture of the Democrat, the only Black US president, to the opposite side of the famed residence's grand entrance hallway, AFP said.

The move is a highly unusual one for a sitting president, as most must wait to leave office before getting their portrait hung in the historic 200-year-old building.

"Some new artwork at the White House," the White House said on X, along with a video of people walking past Trump's new picture in the spot by the main stairwell where Obama's formerly hung.

The new painting shows the iconic moment when a bloodied Trump pumped his fist and shouted "fight" after a gunman shot him in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024.

A White House official said they didn't immediately have information about the artist who painted it. It closely resembles a photograph of the same moment taken by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

Several White House officials later posted pictures of Trump's new picture, while showing Obama's portrait nearby.

"The Obama portrait was just moved a few feet away," White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X -- while telling a critic of the move to "Pipe down, moron."

Traditionally US presidents often shift portraits of their predecessors, while keeping pictures of the most recent officeholders in the main entrance hall.

Obama's was unveiled in 2022 by then-president Joe Biden and shows the 44th president in a black suit and grey tie against a white background.

But the White House's fanfare around the switch-up reflects Trump's long and bitter rivalry with Obama, who was president from 2009 to 2017.

The billionaire launched his political career by pushing the racist and false "birther" conspiracy theory that his Democratic predecessor was lying about being a natural-born American.

Obama responded by repeatedly mocking Trump, most notoriously in a roast at a White House Correspondents Association dinner in 2011.

It also reflects how former reality TV star Trump has never been shy about putting tributes to himself in his various residences.

He recently hung outside the Oval Office a gold-framed version of his mugshot from a case over alleged efforts to interfere with the 2020 election.

And he has a large bronze sculpture of his defiant reaction to the Butler assassination attempt at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.