Mhra

EDM number 1197 in 2012-13, proposed by Paul Flynn on 14/03/2013.
Categorised under the topics of Children and families, Companies, Drugs misuse, Health services, Medicine, Patient rights and complaints and Regulation.

That this House calls for reform of the weak Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) that is funded by the pharmaceutical industry and repeatedly fails the public interest; is appalled that the 20,000 victims of birth defects arising from the use of sodium valproate (Epilim) have been denied legal aid while American parents have already received compensation; recalls that there were 2,000 victims of Thalidomide in the UK and only 20 in the US; congratulates the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration that revealed that 60,000 deaths had resulted from the use of the anti-arthritis drug Vioxx while no alarm was registered here because of the MHRA's defective system of reporting drug side-effects; commends the US' massive fine on Glaxo Smith Kline of $3.5 billion for suppressing negative results of drug trials while no action has been taken here for identical misdemeanours; and believes that the UK should be protected by a fully independent regulatory authority liberated from financial dependence on the pharmaceutical industry.

This motion has been signed by a total of 15 MPs.