Jacques Servier, founder and president of France's second-largest drugmaker, has died before his trial over Mediator, a weight-loss pill at the center of the country's biggest public health scandal in years, reports Reuters.
The 92-year-old billionaire doctor, who founded the privately held drugmaker that bears his name 60 years ago, died on Wednesday at his home, the company said late that evening.
Servier died of old age, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.
He was placed under investigation in 2012 on suspicion of manslaughter for his role in the Mediator scandal and had always denied any wrongdoing.
A trial is expected in the first half of 2015 to determine whether the company misled patients and authorities about the pill, suspected of causing heart-valve disorders.
Read more of this report from Reuters.