According to Health Insurance, the Mediator scandal cost him a lot of money. It claims from the Servier group, during its appeal trial in Paris, nearly 490 million euros. “Archi-fraudulent file”, “deception”, “subterfuge”… George Holleaux, lawyer for the general health insurance scheme, did not have words harsh enough to denounce the methods used, according to him, by Servier to market and maintain as long as possible the reimbursement by Social Security of the Mediator.
The second French pharmaceutical group and its former managing director have been retried since January for “aggravated deception”, “involuntary homicides and injuries”, “undue obtaining of marketing authorization” and “fraud” to the detriment in particular of the funds of Social security and mutuals. At first instance, in March 2021, the group had been granted an acquittal for this last offence.
The criminal court considered that Servier had not demonstrated “fraudulent maneuvers” constituting the fraud since the High Authority for Health had concluded on several occasions that the Mediator presented an insufficient “medical service rendered”, and therefore that it was known to all that its effectiveness had not been demonstrated.
Six months of operation of the Lille University Hospital
It is “a manifest error of assessment (…) of the mechanisms of health insurance”, 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 Me 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 assesses the damage at 486 million euros: 349 million euros for the reimbursement of Mediator boxes, 9 million euros for echocardiograms paid for after 2009 to screen for possible sequelae in patients and 128 million euros for accrued interest. “Do you realize what we could have done with that money? “Thundered Me Holleaux, calculating that this represented” six months of operation of the Lille University Hospital “.