MPs call for tougher drug industry rules

Tuesday, 5 April 2005 12:00 AM

MPs today called for tougher controls on new medicines.

The call follows concerns about the over-prescription of drugs and the close partnership between the regulator and pharmaceutical firms.

The House of Commons' Select Health Committee challenged the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to better police the effects of new drugs on public health.

MPs criticised MHRA's evaluation of clinical trials, its control of marketing and post-marketing evaluation as well as the withdrawal of drugs and licensing related to generic drugs.

As such, MPs on the committee called for an independent "fundamental" review of the MHRA to ensure the safe rollout of effective medicines.

Family doctors were criticised of sometimes being "too willing to accept hospitality from the industry and act uncritically on the information supplied by the drug companies".

They were also brought to account for prescribing anti-depressants "indiscriminately on a grand scale".

MPs on the cross-party committee said drugs firms appeared intent on making Britain into "a pill for every ill" society.

"The inappropriate or excessive use of medicines can cause distress, ill-health, hospitalisation and even death. Adverse drug reactions are responsible for about five per cent of all admissions to hospitals in the UK," the report said.

It estimated about 650 million prescriptions were written each year by GPs with the resultant cost on the NHS at more than £7 billion a year.

Pharmaceutical firms will also be called upon to make data more accessible.

David Hinchliffe, chairman of the committee, said drug firms had operated without effective discipline and regulation.

Since it started its review last June, committee members have heard evidence from GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, two of Britain's largest pharmaceutical firms, as well as regulators, journalists and researchers.

Health Minister Lord Norman Warner said the Government would consider the recommendations of the report "in due course".

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