This week’s jeer goes to the french diabetes drug mediator from the pharmaceutical company Servier. The drug benflourex (mediator brand name) was banned from use in late 2009 by the  European Medicines Agency after it was linked to 500-1000 fatalities.

What rocked me aside from the  deaths was the fact that this was a staple in the french drug market, literally at  time it was shelved, it had been on the market for 33 years, it was selling seven million boxes a year as an appetite-suppressant.

It was being used by over 300,000 people by  helping diabetics combat insulin resistance and induce weight loss to control obesity.

Recent studies showed that its main component, benfluorex, could weaken heart valves and also cause pulmonary arterial hypertension and was estimated that between 500 and 1,000 people may have died as a result of using the drug.

The European Medicines Agency which pulled benfluorex from the market last year said the drug had little or no effect on diabetes and  insulin resistance however.

My question to E.M.A, French health officials, even Servier for that matter was where were the stop gap checks that protects consumers from this kind of damage assuming it was unintentional that is and not a case of corporate greed.

It is a damn shame that it took 33 years, millions of prescriptions, more than 300,000 in current use, 500-1000 deaths linked to the drug for someone to come out and say enough is enough a damn shame indeed…..