There are a depressingly large number of stories around about the inappropriate levels of influence drug companies have over government authorities who are responsible for developing, delivering and regulating health care. Most of the ones we read relate to the US and UK, but here’s one from France.
This is the story of a drug called Mediator which is supposed to be prescribed for diabetics to help them lose weight, but seems to have been prescribed to a lot of French people over the years whether they’re diabetic or not. As far back as the 1990s reports of deaths occurring in patients taking this drug began to emerge and the problem seemed so serious that the US, Switzerland and Spain all banned it. More recent studies have suggested between 500 and 2,000 French people may have died taking this drug. The question being asked is why did it take until November 2009 for the French authorities to act on the evidence?
The company which makes Mediator is Servier which is an old French family business with longstanding connections in the French establishment.
“Servier has shown an extraordinary capacity for escaping criticism,” said Socialist deputy Gerard Bapt, a cardiologist who has taken a close interest in the scandal. “The main reason is because it has been able to infiltrate all the relevant scientific committees working on this drug.” For Irene Frachon, “the conflicts of interest are palpable… Among the medical establishment, in the pharmaceutical and cardiological communities, there are people close [to the Servier laboratories].”
Heroes Not Zombies 
Where did the loss of do no harm start?
May doctors need now reclaim their profession, and not put up with the intimidation of drug companies, insurance companies and well meaning bureaucrats .
The local doctor years ago had far less drugs and a better name by the patients they looked after.
Who sabotaged them?
there is a little used word in social science that because of its little use seems to refer to an area of thought that should not be thought. ‘homology’. bob, am wondering if this concept is applicable here, or if not, where is its limitations?
hmm, I’m not aware of “homology” in that context. In biology it refers to species with common origins……could you say more?
What do you think of US pharmaceutical companies “finding” medications used in Europe, branding, testing and marketing them for the ailment de jour?
I am disgusted that Flupirtine is now been given a name, Effirma, and a disorder, Fibromyalgia, and has received exclusive rights in the US, Canada and Japan.
If it’s been used in Europe safely since 1983, or so they say, why don’t we have it just to serve the needs of the people?!
The FDA should be doing more to help get drugs like this on the market without the costly “branding”, especially since they have cracked down on pain medication prescribing methods.
I will never understand how the FDA serves the people, and it seems like there HAS to be a better way.