Public health scandal inquiry

"State’s responsibility for Mediator:" Libération reports on the scandal over the antidiabetic drug Mediator, prescribed as an appetite suppressant and distributed by Servier Laboratories between 1976 and 2009. Although its active ingredient benfluorex was judged to be dangerous and banned in most countries, the French health authority afsspas did not withdraw it from the market until November 2009. It is now estimated that the drug, which was consumed by three million patients in France, has caused 500 deaths. Libération voices its support for a parliamentary inquiry to shed light on "doubts about the professionalism of the French health authority: particularly, with regard to its connections with Servier Laboratories, and the general issue of links between politics and the pharmaceuticals industry."