§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether the pharmaceutical drug Thalidomide still has a product licence; for what purposes its use is recommended; and what safeguards there are to ensure that it is not taken by pregnant women;
(2) if any drug trials are currently taking place involving the pharmaceutical drug Thalidomide.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThre are no current product licences for Thalidomide in the United Kingdom.
The medicines control agency of the Department of Health has been notified under the doctors and dentists exemption scheme of one clinical trial involving the use of the drug Thalidomide in the United Kingdom.
Clinical trials with Thalidomide may be approved which do not involve women of child-bearing potential. There is interest in testing it for use in severe orogenital ulceration—Behcet's syndrome—and serious skin conditions—actinic prurigo and skin disease of leprosy.