A major trial into a weight-loss drug linked to hundreds of deaths has opened in France in a case exposing the allegedly unhealthy ties between members of the medicines watchdog and the pharmaceutical industry.
Servier, the drugs company, is accused of aggravated deception, fraud and illegal taking of interest, or failing to act to shelve Mediator, a diabetes pill for weight loss, despite safety concerns.
The ANSM medicines watchdog - known at the time as Afssaps - faces charges of negligence and manslaughter in the criminal court in Paris.
At least 500 people are thought to have died of heart valve problems in France after taking the drug while experts estimate it may cause 2,100 deaths in the long term and have caused irrevocable damage to thousands of others.