[4] In 2009, Mediator, an amphetamine-based Servier drug originally developed for weight loss in people with diabetes but often prescribed off-label as a dieting aid, was withdrawn from the market after being linked to 500–2000 deaths in France.

[10][11] Further investigations found that many previous safety alerts on that drug had been either missed or covered up, possibly due to the improper influence of the well-connected company.

[18] Servier Laboratories has been the subject of worldwide scandal for creating and distributing a weight-loss drug called Mediator (Benfluorex), which may have killed up to 2,100 people.

[19] The movie 150 Milligrams, by director Emmanuelle Bercot, features Dr. Irène Frachon discovering that Mediator pills cause heart valve problems/deaths and how in 2009 she starts an uphill battle against the producer and the French health authorities.

The court also ordered the company to pay several hundred million euros in damages to the 6,500 plaintiffs, and one of its leading managers was sentenced to four years on probation.