§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many drugs currently on sale contain phenylpropanolamine and have a recommended dose of over 75 mg daily;
(2) how many adverse reaction reports have been received by the Committee on Safety of Medicines in each of the last five years about cold remedies and other drugs containing phenylpropanolamine;
(3) what is the estimated annual number of purchases of drugs containing phenylpropanolamine with a recommended dose of over 75 mg daily; how many individuals are thought to take these drugs annually; and what is the value of the annual sales of these drugs.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThirty one licensed medicinal products provide a daily dose of more than 75 m.g. of phenylpropanolamine (PPA). These products are available to the public only under the supervision of a pharmacist. The Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) has received 59 reports of adverse reactions in the United Kingdom, none of them fatal, over the last 15 years, associated with the administration of products containing PPA, in which PPA was the suspect ingredient. An annual breakdown is not readily available because of the small aggregate number.
Drugs containing PPA have been widely sold in this country over the past 20 years but there are no authoritative data on the sale, value and consumption of these drugs.