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.



10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
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10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.