Servier laboratories were found guilty on March 29 of “aggravated deception” and “involuntary homicides and injuries”. But acquitted of the offenses of improperly obtaining marketing authorization and fraud. They were sentenced by the Paris Criminal Court to a fine of 2.718 million euros.

The sentences handed down were well below the requisitions of the prosecution , which had demanded 10.3 million euros in fines against Servier and his ex-right arm. The prosecution therefore decided to appeal this partial release.

The explanation for the partial acquittal is legal: the Servier laboratories have indeed been acquitted of the crime of fraud for which they were also prosecuted. The court ruled that the existence of “fraudulent maneuvers” was not established on the reimbursement of the drug.

The Paris prosecutor’s office therefore decided on Tuesday to make a partial appeal, bearing “on the one hand, on the acquittal for the offense of fraud”, and “on the other hand on the finding by the court of extinction of public action due to the acquisition of the prescription ”.

It is on the basis of the first offense that “were based the demands of social security funds and mutuals, civil parties, for damages related to the reimbursement of the drug”, recalls the public prosecutor.

For Charles Joseph-Oudin, counsel to several hundred direct victims, “this call was a decision wanted by my clients and we salute it. In the court’s decision, there was a very disturbing element: the fact that social security and mutual societies are not reimbursed for very large sums ”.

No impact on compensation for victims

This appeal, which concerns the former operational director and certain companies of the Servier group, “does not call into question the convictions made on other grounds”, in particular the homicides and unintentional injuries or aggravated deception, nor the other acquittals pronounced by the tribunal.

“This appeal does not have more consequences on the compensation of the victims for whose benefit the provisional execution of the decision was pronounced by the court”, specifies the prosecutor. “The Paris prosecutor’s office also reserves the right to cross-appeal (appeal formed in reaction to the main appeal, to respond to it, Editor’s note) after possible appeals from other parties to the proceedings. “

More than 6,500 people became civil parties during this criminal trial, mainly for “deception”. Around 180 million euros in damages have been awarded to the victims in compensation for the damages suffered, according to preliminary estimates