HC Deb 17 March 1997 vol 292 cc471-2W
Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will require the Medicines Commission to review the operation of the Committee on Safety of Medicines in October 1995; [20481]

(2) if he will list the dates between 1 June 1995 and 19 October 1995 when he met the chairman of the Committee on Safety of Medicines; [20622]

(3) if he will publish the documents of 16 October 1995 relating to the instructions his Department gave to the Medical Direct Mail Organisation; [20561]

(4) when data from the World Health Organisation study into oral contraception were first made available to the Medicines Control Agency; and if he will make a statement; [20559]

(5) when his Department's formal written request of 11 October 1995 relating to desogestrel and gestodene was acknowledged by (a) the Committee for Proprietary Medicinal Products and (b) the European Medicines Evaluation Agency; [20482]

(6) on what date the licensing authority received the abstract relating to the transnational study, subsequently presented at the British Pharmacological Society; and when the abstract was seen by the Committee on Safety of Medicines; [20623]

(7) if Ministers asked the Medicines Control Agency to arrange the meeting of the Committee on Safety of Medicines held on 13 October 1995; [20562]

(8) on what dates after 13 October the Committee on Safety of Medicines considered matters relating to the safety of oral contraceptives containing desogestrel and gestodene; [20483]

(9) on whose instructions the letter over the signature of the chairman of the Committee on Safety of Medicines of 18 October 1995 was issued. [20560]

Mr. Malone

The hon. Member, and the hon. Member for Gordon (Mr. Bruce) have already pursued these matters in great detail. I refer the hon. Member to the statement to the House by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health on 23 October 1995 at columns 701–10 and to the replies I gave on 12 June 1996 at columns250–71, 7 November 1995 at columns 679–80, 11 December 1995 at columns 522–23, 19 December 1995 at columns 1148–50 and 1152–54, 8 February 1996 at columns 343–48, 7 March 1996 at column 321, 14 March 1996 at column 752, 21 March 1996 at columns 317–18, 25 March 1996 at column 428,28 March 1996 at column 748,1 April 1996 at column 53, 2 April 1996 at columns 184–86, 24 April 1996 at columns 172–74, 25 April 1996 at column 281, 30 April 1996 at columns 497–99, 9 May 1996 at columns 243–44, 10 May 1996 at columns 280–82, 5 June 1996 at columns 447–49, 13 June 1996 at columns 245–247, 17 June 1996 at column 358, 20 June 1996 at columns 570–71,21 June 1996 at columns 667–68.

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