Laboratoires Servier

Servier Laboratories is a company that makes medicines. It is based in France and is run by a non-profit foundation. In 2018, the company made 4.2 billion euros in sales. Servier is the largest independent pharmaceutical company in France and the second-largest overall. 

It has offices in 149 countries, and most of its sales come from outside France. The company spends about a quarter of its money on research and development, and 3,000 of its employees work in this area. The company has 22,000 employees around the world and made 853 million drug boxes in 2013.

Servier has a unit in Gidy, France that makes medicines for clinical trials. It is the biggest unit of its kind in Europe. Servier is a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. In 2018, the company bought a part of Shire's oncology business in Boston, and its new US headquarters opened in 2019.

However, Servier is also known for a weight-loss drug called Mediator. The drug was taken off the market in 2009 after it was linked to between 500 and 2,000 deaths in France. The drug was originally meant to help people with diabetes lose weight, but it was often given to people who wanted to lose weight for other reasons. Investigations found that warnings about the drug's safety were ignored or covered up. Some people believe the company had too much influence over the safety warnings.

In 2021, Servier was found guilty of deceiving people and causing involuntary manslaughter. The company was fined 2.7 million euros and ordered to pay several hundred million euros to the 6,500 people who were affected by the drug. One of the company's managers was sentenced to four years on probation. The French medical agency ANSM was also fined for not doing enough to supervise the drug's safety.

 References 

Category:Companies of France
Category:Pharmaceutical companies of Europe