According to the Health Insurance, the scandal of the Mediator has cost him a crazy pognon. It claims from the Servier group, during its appeal trial in Paris, nearly 490 million euros. "Extremely fraudulent file", "deception", "subterfuge"... George Holleaux, lawyer for the general health insurance scheme, did not have words harsh enough to denounce the methods used by Servier to market and maintain as long as possible the reimbursement by the Social Security of the Mediator.

The second largest French pharmaceutical group and its former CEO have been retried since January for "aggravated deception", "homicide and unintentional injuries", "improper obtaining of marketing authorization" and "fraud" to the detriment of social security funds and mutual insurance companies. At first instance, in March 2021, the group had been acquitted for this last offence. The criminal court had considered that Servier had not shown "fraudulent maneuvers" constituting the fraud since the High Authority of Health had concluded several times that the Mediator presented an insufficient "medical service rendered", and therefore that it was known to all that its effectiveness was not demonstrated.

Six months of operation of Lille University Hospital

It is "a manifest error of assessment (...) health insurance mechanisms", argued Géraldine Brasier Porterie, lawyer for the MSA Agricultural Social Security, recalling that "the medical service rendered insufficient does not entail any automatic reimbursement". Even if the Health Insurance "was aware of the fraudulent behavior, it did not have the means to put an end to it," also explained Mr. Holleaux, the decision to reimburse or not to reimburse being the responsibility of the Minister of Health.

For the general health insurance scheme alone, which covers 88% of the French population, the lawyer estimates the damage at 486 million euros: 349 million euros for the reimbursement of Mediator boxes, 9 million euros for echocardiographies covered after 2009 to detect possible sequelae in patients and 128 million euros for accumulated interest. "Do you realize how much we could have done with this money?" thundered Mr. Holleaux, calculating that it represented "six months of operation of the CHU of Lille".

  • Justice
  • Health insurance
  • Mediator
  • Servier
  • Lawsuit