§ Mr. EdwardsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will (1) require the Medicines Control Agency to re-examine research findings by Professor Dick Van Velzen into medicines used in the treatment of cystic fibrosis; [160707]
401W(2) meet Professor John Dodge of the University of Wales, to discuss his concerns about research undertaken by Professor Dick Van Velzen into the treatment of cystic fibrosis. [160706]
§ Mr. DenhamIn 1994–95 Professor Van Velzen undertook research into bowel strictures (fibrosing colonopathy) reported in children with cystic fibrosis, as one of several pathologists, paediatricians and epidemiologists. The study report, together with other information, led to warnings from the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) on the use of high-strength pancreatic enzymes. There have been no new confirmed cases of fibrosing colonopathy reported to the CSM since their advice was issued in 1995. The study to which Professors Van Velzen and Dodge contributed was published in The Lancet, and I refer my hon. Friend to correspondence on this issue published in The Lancet dated 12 May 2001. We do not consider a meeting with Professor Dodge to be necessary.