HC Deb 23 November 1992 vol 214 cc502-3W
Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (I) what information she has concerning the extent of the use in(a) the United Kingdom and (b) overseas in products used in the United Kingdom, of cell-lines front the tissue of aborted babies in the production of (i) polio vaccine, (ii) rubella vaccine, (iii) other vaccines and (iv) other medical and pharmaceutical products;

(2) what guidance is issued by her Department concerning the use of cell lines from the tissue of aborted babies in the production of vaccines and other medical products;

(3) if she will give a breakdown by country of manufacture of those medical, pharmaceutical and other products which are currently approved for use in the United Kingdom and which have been produced using cell lines from the tissue of aborted babies.

Dr. Mawhinney

Human cell lines are used in the manufacture of polio, rubella and hepatitis A vaccines. The cell line MRCS developed by the Medical Research Council was isolated in the early 1970s from the lungs of a single foetus. Our understanding is that all current needs, and those for the foreseeable future, will be met from this one isolation.

The vaccines may be manufactured in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, France or the United States of America. We are not aware of other licensed products using human cell lines.

Mrs. Gorman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and which NHS hospitals in England providing day-care abortion services are offering early medical abortion services in the first nine weeks of pregnancy with mifepristone and prostaglandin.

Mr. Sackville

Information in the form requested is not collected centrally. Abortion notifications between July, when the drug was licensed, and December 1991, the latest period for which figures are available, show that the mifepristone and prostaglandin method was used in 19 national health service hospitals in England and Wales. Identifying information derived from the notification form, including the names of the hospitals concerned, may not be generally disclosed, except in the circumstances specified in regulation 5 of the Abortion Regulations 1991.