"Money concerns all parties in the (Mediator) health tragedy," declared Irene Frachon, a French physician who helped reveal the toxicity of a popular diabetes and obesity drug benfluorex, also known by the brand name Mediator, during a presentation on Saturday.

Frachon, who won an "Ethics Prize" from the Anticor association in 2011, helped reveal the role of benfluorex in at least 500 confirmed deaths from heart valve disease, as well as medical complications for thousands more patients across France.

The drug, patented and sold on the French market between 1976 and 2009 by the French pharmaceutical company Servier, was used on a daily basis by as many as 300,000 people, according to Frachon. It was also available in Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus.

Authorities pulled the drug after Frachon and her colleagues were able to show a significant increase in unexplained heart valve disease by patients using benflourex in comparison with a control group.

Even after the Mediator scandal, the influence of money still haunts the healthcare industry, she claimed, citing that "between 2012 and 2013, the five biggest pharmaceutical companies spent approximately 20 million euros on meals, hotels, gifts, and invitations for doctors."

There is "a deafness today to the impact of the question of money in the defense of our fellow citizens," she said, increasing the risk that the public could be faced with new "Mediator scandals."

Frachon is also the author of a book recounting her battle to have benflourex taken off the shelves, Mediator 150mg: Combien de morts? (Mediator 150mg: How many deaths?), published in 2010.

She spoke as part of the fifth edition of the European Forum on Bioethics. The event has been organized since 2011, since it was founded by a group of academics, researchers, and medical and healthcare professionals who sought to raise consciousness of problems in bioethics by creating an annual forum for the public.

This year's forum was organized around the theme of "Money and Health," and was held in Strasbourg from Monday until Saturday. It featured live debates by industry experts, as well as youth and cultural programming.