§ 3.5 p.m.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government when it is proposed to follow the example of the Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America which requires some 23 side-effects to be listed in a folder accompanying every package of oral contraceptives of the eight brands on the market.]
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS (LORD BESWICK)My Lords, Her Majesty's Government have no proposal of this kind. In this country oral contraceptives are available only if supplied or prescribed by a doctor, whose professional responsibility it is to give any advice or warnings he considers necessary to the patient concerned, including information about any effects that the patient might regard as unexpected.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, may I ask my noble friend whether that Answer is not a little unrealistic? How many general practitioners, if they send a woman in the first place to a family planning association, have the time or the knowledge to give the 23 side-effects of the eight different brands? Has he forgotten that it was the Food and Drug Administration of the United States which refused to allow thalidomide to be distributed in the United States, despite the protests of the pharmaceutical industry, and thereby saved large numbers of women 672 from having congenitally deformed children? Would it not be wise to follow their example in this case?
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, I agree with my noble friend that we should be wise to study carefully the experience in the United States of America, but, if I may say so to her, and I say so with considerable deference, I think it is wrong to say that there are 23 side-effects of this particular drug. Nor does the document which is inserted into the packets in the United States as a result of the action of the authorities there list 23 side-effects. It does list 23 medical possibilities, some of which it is thought may be the result of this drug, and the complicated reasoning behind this is not something which can be explained in an insertion in a packet. I should have thought it would have been better provided by the doctor to the patient.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, in view of the fact that the cost of this folder which is inserted in all these packets in the United States is paid for by the pharmaceutical industry, could the noble Lord tell me—I am a little bewildered—why the Ministry of Health refuse to do it? It will not cost them a penny.
§ LORD BESWICKThe reason is simple. If it is advisable to give patients guidance or further information about this drug it is better done by the doctor than by a leaflet in a packet which may or may not be read.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLOh, really!
§ LORD BESWICKI do not know whether my noble friend has read the particular document to which she refers. I have read it. I do not claim to have medical knowledge. My own feeling is that most women, having read this, would be absolutely panic-stricken or would completely ignore it, because it is really un-understandable to the average lay woman.
§ LORD NEWTONMy Lords, would the noble Lord agree with me that it would be better to follow what is the long-established tradition in this country, which is to leave it to the medical profession to decide what to prescribe or not to prescribe for their patients, particularly because, so far as I know, there 673 is virtually no drug to the taking of which some risk is not attached.
§ LORD BESWICKI agree with what the noble Lord says. I must say I also accept the point made by my noble friend that within the time at the disposal of general practitioners it is not possible for them to go into all the details they would like to, but ideally that is the best way of giving this kind of information. I would add that the legislation which the Government hope to introduce on drugs and medicine generally will, I am given to understand, include provision to give them power relating to packet-inserts; but, even so, it would not be advisable to use this method of giving information for drugs not on general sale.
§ LORD AIREDALEMy Lords, would the Government also follow the excellent practice of the United States in requiring the harmful effects of cigarette-smoking to be given in a warning on every cigarette packet?