the Mediator scandal adapted into a comic book
After being adapted many times through literature and even in cinema, the Mediator scandal will also be told through the pages of a comic that will be published on January 4, 2023.
The Mediator scandal continues to inspire culture. After a book, a movie, and even a play, the controversy started in 2010 will now be the subject of a comic book adaptation. Title The middleman, chemically cleans crime, this comic to be published by Delcourt Editions on January 4, 2023, was written by whistleblower Irène Frachon together with former journalist Éric Giacometti and drawn by François Duprat. It traces not only the history of Mediator, but also the history of its manufacturer, Servier Laboratories, and another of its drugs banned in the 1990s: Isomeride.
“Thriller in which everything is true”
« A true factual history from A to Z has never been written “, says the pulmonologist at the Brest-Carhaix hospital, which is why she started writing this kind of project, which she describes ironically “a thriller in which everything is true.” Specifically, this comic will trace the origins of the health scandal, going back to the source of the problem: the 1960s marketing of Isomeride, a drug that was finally banned in 1997, but whose similarities to Mediator led to production in 1976, would not be discovered until in 2009.
« Isomeride and Mediator are the same thing. They release the same poison into the body. Servier knew it and covered it up” emphasizes Irène Frachon, before adding yes “a scandal […] it caused an uproar in the United States, while in France the affair caused pschitt to the chagrin of the journalist of Le Parisien, Éric Giacometti, author of several articles on the subject. » The idea of a comic was born from their meeting. Became a writer and screenwriter Largo WinchÉric Giacometti helped pace this 200-page story.
Between thrillers, testimonials, medical and scientific explanations, The middleman, chemically cleans the crime, in a factual manner, without the imprint of fiction, recounts the case, its origin, but also the long-term collective work in the fight against the Intermediaries. The author – whose fight was adapted on the big screen by Emmanuelle Bercot in 2016 A girl from Brest – also intends to restore public confidence in the French health system, at a time when Covid-19 and mandatory vaccinations have caused much debate. Finally, please note that the comic will be released in bookstores on January 4th, 2023, just days before the Mediator appeals trial begins on January 9th.
