Servier Laboratories is an international pharmaceutical company governed by a non-profit foundation, with its headquarters in France. The consolidated turnover for the 2018 financial year was €4.2 billion. Servier is the leading French independent pharmaceutical company, and the second largest French pharmaceutical company worldwide. It has branches in 149 countries, achieving 82% of its sales outside France. The company reportedly invests a little under 25% of its turnover in research and development, which occupies 3,000 of its 22,000 employees worldwide. The company's production sites produced 853 million drug boxes in 2013. The Servier Clinical Support Unit in Gidy, which produces drugs for clinical trials, is the largest unit of its kind in Europe. Servier Laboratories is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations. In 2018, Servier finalized the acquisition of Shire’s oncology branch in Boston. The official opening of Servier's new U.S. headquarters took place in 2019. Mediator, an amphetamine-based Servier drug originally developed for weight loss in people with diabetes but often prescribed off-label as a dieting aid, was withdrawn from the market after being linked to 500–2000 deaths in France. Further investigations found that many previous safety alerts on that drug had been either missed or covered up, possibly due to the improper influence of the company.
As well as internal research and development activities, Servier undertakes publicly funded collaborative research projects with industrial and academicpartners. One example, in the area of non-clinical safety assessment, is the InnoMed PredTox. The company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative of EFPIA and the European Commission. In addition to these, Servier engages in research and licensing collaborations across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. These collaborations include:
In Cardiology: XENTION, AMGEN, MIRAGEN, ARMGO
In Diabetes: INTARCIA
In Metabolic diseases: INTERCEPT - TGR5 agonists, GENFIT
In Neurology : GENEURO
In Oncology: CTI BIOPHARMA, NOVARTIS, CELLECTIS, NERVIANO, EOS / CLOVIS, BIOINVENT, MACROGENICS, GALAPAGOS, BIOREALITES, PHARMACYCLICS - HDAC inhibitor, HYBRIGENICS VERNALIS
In Orphan Diseases/Cardiology/Diabetes: XOMA
In Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis: OSTEOLOGIX, GALAPAGOS, KAROS, NORDIC BIOSCIENCE
Servier Laboratories has been the object of worldwide scandal for creating and distributing a weight-loss drug called Mediator, which may have killed up to 2,100 people. The movie 150 Milligrams, by director Emmanuelle Bercot, features Dr. Irène Frachon discovering that Mediator pills cause heart valve problems/deaths and how in 2009 she starts an uphill battle against the producer and the French health authorities.
