French pharma firm guilty of fraud, manslaughter over weight loss pill: court

Paris: A French court on Monday found pharma giant Servier guilty of "aggravated fraud" and "involuntary manslaughter" over a diabetes and weight loss pill blamed for hundreds of deaths in one of the country's biggest recent health scandals.

The drug Mediator was on the market for 33 years and used by about five million people before being pulled in 2009 over fears it could cause serious heart problems -- more than a decade after such concerns had first been raised.

Servier's former deputy boss was sentenced to a suspended jail sentence of four years, and the court fined the company 2.7 million euros ($3.2 million).

France's medicines agency was fined 303,000 euros for its role in the scandal.