Life and death of a drug in the 21st century. From the book Mediator® 150mg. Combien de morts? (I. Franchon, 2010) to the film La fille de Brest (E. Bercort, 2016)

Abstract

La fille de Brest, based on real events, reports the events experienced by Dr. Irène Franchon and her team during the four years they face the French pharmaceutical giant Servier and the Health Product Safety Agency. Its goal was to obtain the withdrawal of the drug Mediator® 150mg, administered as an adjuvant in diabetic patients and also as anorexigen, causing severe valvulopathies. This article follows the course of the film La doctora de Brest (title of the Spanish version) and displays the different activities of the research initiated in the hospital of Brest (Brittany, France) in 2006, and which ended with the withdrawal of the drug in 2009. At least 500 deaths were attributed to Mediator during its thirty-three years in the French market. The analysis of the film can be used for teaching medical, nursing and pharmacy students since it allows the observation of the work of different health care professionals (cardiologists, pneumologists, research nurses, statisticians, etc.) and health administration (pharmacologists). It also illustrates clinical and ethical problems of interest to different specialties (cardiology, endocrinology, etc.).

Keywords

• mediator®
• benfluorex
• irène franchon
• farmacovigilancia
• valvulopatías investigación