France is setting up a fund to meet compensation claims from people affected by an epilepsy treatment made by Sanofi that is believed to cause birth malfunctions and slow neurological development.
The French parliament voted to create a nationwide compensation fund and amended the 2017 budget bill late on Tuesday to set aside an initial 10 million euros ($10.7 million) for claims relating to Depakine, a brandname for valproate, which is also used to treat bipolar disorder.
Parents of those affected say the French state and Sanofi were too slow to warn of the side effects of the drug, which has been used to successfully treat epilepsy since 1967, after the risks to fetuses became clear by the early 1980s..
