Mon dieu! Is there a government scandal brewing in France? Health minister Xavier Bertrand has now been linked to the controversy over the Mediator diabetes pill sold by Servier, which earlier this week acknowledged an excess risk had existed that some patients could develop heart-valve damage. That led to consumers filing dozens of lawsuits and threatening hundreds more (see this).

The admission came less than a month after French authorities began investigating the possiblity that Mediator, which was prescribed as appetite suppressant for overweight diabetes, may have been linked to up to 2,000 deaths. The drug was banned in 2009, although there were concerns dating back to 1998. Now, though, there are reports that two former Bertrand advisers - a doctor and a public health expert who was in charge of research at the ministry - had worked for Servier.

One of them ran a foundation and conducted a study, while the other as a conference speaker. Both also worked for an Alzheimer’s foundation funded, in part, by the drugmaker. Bertrand, however, insists he had “no knowledge” the pair had worked for Servicer, which is France’s second-largest drugmaker. They worked for Bertrand back in 2005. Bertrand says he contacted the former advisers the other day and they assured him they had “no such links” with Servier, according to The Telegraph.