§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the over-the-counter medicinal products sold for babies and children which contain aspirin or aspirin derivatives; and what advice he has received regarding the continued sale of these products.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 23 October 1986]: I understand that, following the recommendation by the Committee on Safety of Medicines in June this year 1033W concerning a possible association with Reye's syndrome that aspirin should not be given to children under 12 except on medical advice, manufacturers voluntarily stopped the supply of all aspirin-containing products for children. At the same time they arranged for the recall of existing retail stocks. I am satisfied that the manufacturers would immediately follow up any detailed allegations that children's aspirin products are now still on sale and, if correct, would see that action was taken to withdraw them.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how significant was the risk factor study regarding Reye's syndrome in the decision of the Committee on Safety of Medicines on the use of children's aspirin; who paid for the study; what was the nature of his Department's involvement; and in what way he intends that his Department should support continuation of the study of work and its implications.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 23 October 1986]: The preliminary report to the Reye's syndrome risk factor study was one of several pieces of evidence which were examined by the Committee on Safety of Medicines in March 1986. The committee based its conclusion that the use of aspirin may in some cases be linked to the causation of Reye's syndrome on the totality of the available evidence which my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mr. Hayhoe) outlined in his reply to the right hon. Member on 13 June at columns 366–67.
The public health laboratory services board was responsible for meeting the costs of the risk factor study but received a contribution towards those costs from pharmaceutical industry. The Department is responsible for funding the PHLSB but had no direct involvement in the study. The risk factor study is now complete but the PHLSB has agreed to continue to fund the British Reye's syndrome surveillance scheme for the next three years. The 1034W CSM will continue to keep the issue of Reye's syndrome and aspirin under review and will make further recommendations if this is warranted.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether the Committee on Safety of Medicines received any representations or communications from the aspirin manufacturers during the period in 1985 when it was considering the relationship between the use of aspirin and Reye's syndrome.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 23 October 1986]; Two papers were received from the Aspirin Foundation. These were among the many papers and publications from other sources considered by the Committee on Safety of Medicines in March and April 1985 before it advised at that time that the available evidence had not established a causal link between aspirin use and Reye's syndrome.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services precisely when the Committee on Safety of Medicines first received evidence from the United States that the number of reports of Reye's syndrome had fallen in line with the fall in the use of aspirin; what was the source of the information; wo sent it; and what was the response of the Committee.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 23 October 1986]: Evidence of a fall in the number of reports of Reye's syndrome in the United States of America was published in "Paediatrics" on 1 January 1986 and in the United States "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report", on 7 February 1986. Both reports were seen by members of the secretariat of the Committee on Safety of Medicines shortly after publication. Evidence of a concurrent fall in aspirin use became available to the CSM's secretariat on 10 March 1986. These reports, with other evidence, were considered by the Committee on 26 March and its response has already been reported in the reply by my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Mr. Hayhoe) to my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key) on 10 June; at columns 145–46.