PARIS—Accused of favoring profits over patients’ lives, French pharmaceutical company Servier Laboratories is facing millions of euros in potential fines and damages after a huge trial involving 6,500 plaintiffs who say the company allowed a diabetes drug to be widely and irresponsibly prescribed as a diet pill with deadly consequences.
The popular drug, called Mediator, became one of France’s biggest modern health scandals, and the trial is wrapping up July 6, after more than six months of proceedings targeting both Servier and France’s medicines watchdog. Servier says it didn’t know about the drug’s risks.
