Sanofi has been for­mal­ly charged over De­pakine — a decades-old ther­a­py for epilep­sy that caus­es birth de­fects and im­pedes neu­ro­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ment when tak­en dur­ing preg­nan­cy.

Ev­i­dence that the com­pound — sodi­um val­proate — was as­so­ci­at­ed with neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal risks emerged in the lat­ter half of the 20th cen­tu­ry. In 2014, the EMA re-eval­u­at­ed the drug, and a year lat­er rec­om­men­da­tions that prac­ti­tion­ers should no longer pre­scribe the treat­ment for women of child­bear­ing age or preg­nant women were en­forced.

In 2015, the French so­cial af­fairs in­spec­tion agency (IGAS) chid­ed French health au­thor­i­ties and Sanofi over their re­sponse to the risks re­lat­ed to the drug and its de­riv­a­tives. Soon af­ter, the French pros­e­cu­tor kicked off a pre­lim­i­nary in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the ap­proval and sale of De­pakine in Oc­to­ber 2016, Reuters re­port­ed.

The com­pound — which is on the WHO list of “es­sen­tial med­i­cines” — has been on the mar­ket since 1967 to treat epilep­sy and bipo­lar dis­or­der. Sanofi learned of the risk of fe­tus mal­for­ma­tion in the 1980s. In 2003, the com­pa­ny be­came aware of the drug’s im­pact on the neu­ro­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ment of the fe­tus, with a risk of autism or learn­ing dif­fi­cul­ties, ac­cord­ing to the wire agency.

“It’s fi­nal­ly a great vic­to­ry!” tweet­ed Ma­rine Mar­tin, pres­i­dent of the As­so­ci­a­tion for the as­sis­tance of par­ents of chil­dren suf­fer­ing from an­ti-con­vul­sant syn­drome (APE­SAC), which was set up in 2011. “My de­ter­mi­na­tion paid off, we will have our big crim­i­nal tri­al !!!”

Ca y est en­fin GRANDE VIC­TOIRE ✌️ SANOFI MIS EN EX­A­M­EN au PE­NAL ⛓dans le dossier de la DE­PAKINE 💊
Ma déter­mi­na­tion a payé on au­ra notre grand procès pé­nal !!!
Com­mu­niqué de Presse pic.twit­ter.com/Ptf­S­lzd­NYw

— Ma­rine Mar­tin (@_Marine­Martin) Feb­ru­ary 3, 2020

The crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion was ini­ti­at­ed by APE­SAC, and forms of part of the process of the pend­ing crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion on De­pakine be­fore the Ju­di­cial Tri­bunal of Paris, a Sanofi spokesper­son told End­points News.

“This (in­dict­ment) sta­tus will al­low us to as­sert all of our means of de­fence and demon­strate that the com­pa­ny has com­plied with its no­ti­fi­ca­tion oblig­a­tion,” the spokesper­son said.

IGAS has es­ti­mat­ed that be­tween 425 to 450 ba­bies suf­fered con­gen­i­tal birth de­fects or were still­born fol­low­ing ex­po­sure to De­pakine from 2006 to 2014, ac­cord­ing to es­ti­mates cit­ed by Reuters.

Af­ter par­ents of suf­fer­ers crit­i­cized the French state and Sanofi for be­ing too slow to warn about the side ef­fects of the drug — in 2017, a com­pen­sa­tion scheme for vic­tims was set up. Rough­ly 6.5 mil­lion eu­ros has been pro­vid­ed in com­pen­sa­tion to 31 vic­tims, al­though near­ly 2,000 claims have been filed, ac­cord­ing to the French me­dia group fran­ce­in­fo.

Sanofi is not par­tic­i­pat­ing in this fund, the spokesper­son told End­points.

In a 2016 in­ter­view with Reuters, Sanofi said it would ac­cept any blame at­trib­uted by a court over the drug.

On Tues­day, Sanofi in a state­ment that it will “prove it has al­ways com­plied with its du­ty to in­form and been trans­par­ent.”

The Endpoints News team is continuing to track IPO filings for 2021, and we’ve designed a new tracker page for the effort.

Check it out here: Biopharma IPOs 2021 from Endpoints News

You’ll be able to find all the biotechs that have filed and priced so far this year, sortable by quarter and listed by newest first. As of the time of publishing on Feb. 25, there have already been 16 biotechs debuting on Nasdaq so far this year, with an additional four having filed their S-1 paperwork.

S&P Global has taken a look at the dominant forces shaping the pharma market and come to the conclusion that there will be more downgrades than upgrades in 2021 — the 8th straight year of steady decline.

But it’s not all bad news. Some things are looking up, and there’s still plenty of money to be made in an industry that enjoys a 30% to 40% profit margin, once you factor in steep R&D expenses.

The US could have a third authorized Covid-19 vaccine within hours.

The FDA’s advisory committee voted unanimously — 22-0 — to recommend the agency issue an emergency use authorization for J&J’s vaccine. If they follow the precedent of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine,  the FDA will likely authorize the vaccine by Saturday, immediately adding a few million doses to the US supply and adding a 100 million by June. An authorization would give the world its first single-dose vaccine, a major weapon in the effort to vaccinate the world and bring the virus to heel, particularly in rural and developing areas.