§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations the Medicines Commission has received relating to oral contraceptives containing desogestrel and gestodene; and what response the commission has made to those representations. [28136]
§ Mr. MaloneThe chairman of the Medicines Commission has received requests from one individual for the commission to examine issues relating to these oral contraceptives. The chairman responded that it was not appropriate at this time for the commission to consider the matter.
§ Mr. HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Bradford, West (Mr. Madden) of 2 April, Official Report, column 186, what steps the Medicines Control Agency and the Committee on Safety of Medicines took to exclude a false low estimate of the risk of venous thromboembolism with oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel. [28289]
Mr. Malone: Recent studies have indicated that oral contraceptives containing desogestrel or gestodene are associated with greater risk of venous thromboembolism than oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel. A number of factors, including various forms of bias, confounding and chance can potentially influence the findings of such studies, leading to estimates of risk being falsely high or low. The Medicines Control Agency and Committee on Safety of Medicines carefully considered detailed analyses examining the possible effects of these factors and concluded that the observed differences in risk could not be fully explained by them.