Messrs. Merck, Sharpe and Dohme

HC Deb 14 October 1976 vol 917 cc203-4W

Mr. Mike Thomas

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he is yet able to report on his inquiries into the promotional activities of Messrs. Merck, Sharpe and Dohme raised with him by the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East.

Mr. Moyle

As foreshadowed in my right hon. Friend's reply to my hon. Friend on 5th August—[Vol. 916, c.1020–21]—I have obtained details of the programme which Messrs. Merck, Sharpe and Dohme describe as a clinical assessment of the effect produced by the drugs in question in hypertensive patients who had not previously been treated for that condition. I am sending a copy to my hon. Friend. The programme has been studied by my medical advisers. On the assumption that it was implemented in accordance with the protocols laid down by the company, I have no reason to believe that the programme is not a properly constituted clinical assessment designed to obtain knowledge of the use of the drugs in question in the particular conditions of general practice.