Medical accidents, Depakine, Covid vaccine... health injury victims criticized for lack of communication

Oniam – the National Office for Medical Accident Compensation – is an organisation affiliated with the Ministry of Health whose mission is to organise compensation for victims of medical accidents.

However, according to the Court of Auditors, Oniam is not sufficiently known to the general public, despite the 186 million euros in compensation paid in 2024.

How does ONIAM work?
Specifically, Oniam provides amicable compensation to victims of medical accidents, but also to people who have had health problems due to mandatory vaccinations, transfusions or the intake of medicines such as Mediator and Depakine.

However, the Court regrets Oniam’s “relationship with users”, especially since the organisation still does not have a telephone service capable of answering users’ requests for information.

“The processing times are consistently longer than the legal requirements […] and the project for a (digital) platform for submitting applications has not been launched,” the Court regrets.

Since 2016, Oniam has significantly improved its recovery rate for compensation paid by practitioners, hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical laboratories liable for the compensated conditions.

Reimbursement for Depakine and the Covid vaccine
The Court of Auditors is also concerned about the developments in the Depakine case, the antiepileptic drug from Sanofi, which has been shown to pose a serious risk to the foetus if taken during pregnancy.

The pharmaceutical group systematically contests the compensation claims brought against it in court.

Sanofi maintains in particular that it had unsuccessfully requested the French health authorities to amend the drug's documentation to warn of the risks for pregnant women. The Court therefore warns that it is entirely possible that the National Office for Compensation for Medical Accidents (ONIAM) will never be able to recover from Sanofi the compensation it has already paid to the victims, which amounts to 92.4 million euros per December 1, 2025.

With regard to Covid vaccination, by the end of 2025, Oniam had paid compensation to 226 people for health problems related to vaccination, after reviewing approximately half of the 2,059 submitted and approved compensation claims.