paris

The prosecution's case against former prime minister Laurent Fabius in France's ‘contaminated blood’ trial appeared to have been further undermined last week by testimony from François Gros, scientific adviser to Fabius in the 1980s.

Gros, one of France's most eminent biologists and a former director of the Institut Pasteur, absolved Fabius of any wrongdoing and assumed “full responsibility” for the actions underpinning the prosecution's case against the former prime minister.

Along with two other former ministers, Fabius has been charged with ‘involuntary homicide’ for alleged negligence in handling the risk of the transmission of HIV in the blood supply in 1985. The case against him rests mainly on the allegation that he delayed the introduction of a US test manufactured by Abbott Laboratories to protect the national market for a French test (see Nature 397, 548; 1999).

The central plank of this allegation is a decision taken at an interministerial meeting held in the prime minister's office on 9 May 1985 to delay approval of the Abbott test “for some time”. The prosecution brief states that “such a delaying measure could only be the translation of instructions given by the head of government”.

Fabius, who introduced systematic screening of blood samples several months ahead of the United Kingdom and many other countries, has repeatedly denied that he delayed screening in the interests of protectionism. Testifying last week, Gros, who chaired the meeting, said that at no time was the prime minister involved in the discussions.

Gros also claimed that the aim of the meeting was to expedite introduction of screening, and that industrial considerations were “secondary”. Gros, who himself faces trial for ‘collusion in poisoning’, over the affair, also contested the wider accusation that routine screening was delayed by protectionism, arguing that the speed of introduction depended on many factors, in particular costs to the healthcare system.