§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) pursuant to his reply of 21st June, if he will list the six drug substances about which adverse reactions warning leaflets have been published; and which of them were drugs marketed after 1971;
(2) pursuant to his reply of 21st June, if his Department has made any attempt to assess whether some doctors continue to prescribe drugs after yellow warning notices, the prescription being for the purpose about which the warning notice was given; and, if so, what estimate he will give of the number of doctors and number of prescriptions involved;
(3) pursuant to his reply of 21st June, when the decision was taken to seek the advice of relevant professional bodies about new measures to ensure that adverse reactions warning leaflets receive doctors' full attention; which bodies have been consulted; what advice they have given; and what evidence the Department had that caused it to consider that new measures might be necessary.
§ Mr. MoyleThe six drug substances about which adverse reactions warning leaflets have been issued by the Committee on Safety of Medicines are erythromycin, practolol, prazosin, hormonal pregnancy test drugs, neomycin and perhexiline maleate. Of these, prazosin and perhexiline maleate have been marketed after the Committee's inception in 1971.
The Committee on Safety of Medicines constantly has under review ways of improving communications with the medical and dental professions. Concern has been expressed that letters from the Committee might sometimes be overlooked in the heavy amount of mail—including advertising literature—which doctors are known to receive and specific proposals have been under consideration since September 1977. Consultations on a scheme to mark envelopes with a distinctive symbol to denote material concerning adverse reactions to medicines have already taken place with the Post Office and Her Majesty's Stationery Office and will shortly begin with the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and the British Medical Association. The general 460W issue will be raised when representatives of the CSM and the British Medical Association meet in September.
My Department made informal inquiries about an allegation by the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Test Drugs that an individual doctor continued to prescribe hormone pregnancy test drugs following the issue of an adverse reaction warning leaflet. Having elicited that the doctor no longer practised in this country, the inquiries were not pursued. As I stated in my previous reply on this subject on 21st June 1978—[Vol. 952, c. 229–30.]—the decision whether or not to prescribe a product for a particular purpose is a matter for the professional judgment of the doctor treating the patient. It would therefore serve no purpose to initiate general inquiries of this sort and I have no estimate of the numbers of doctors and prescriptions involved.