Sanofi un­der for­mal in­ves­ti­ga­tion for De­pakine al­le­ga­tions; Beam li­cens­es CAR-T tech from Ox­ford Bio­med­ica

Sanofi is fac­ing a for­mal in­ves­ti­ga­tion on manslaugh­ter charges, due to ac­cu­sa­tions that its epilep­sy drug De­pakine caused birth mal­func­tions and slow neu­ro­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ment when tak­en dur­ing preg­nan­cy.

The French phar­ma was for­mal­ly charged in Feb­ru­ary, years af­ter ev­i­dence sur­faced that the drug, sodi­um val­proate, posed neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal risks. Sodi­um val­proate first hit the mar­ket in 1967 for the treat­ment of epilep­sy and bipo­lar dis­or­der, and is cur­rent­ly pre­scribed in more than 100 coun­tries.

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