Nerve Agent Pre-treatment Sets (Hansard, 10 July 1998)

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 16 June 1998,Official Report, 658W columns 164–65, on nerve agent pre-treatment sets, how many of the tablets manufactured by Roche Products Ltd were used during Operation Granby. [48332]

§ Dr. Reid
The Ministry of Defence has no information on the quantity, if any, of Nerve Agent Pre-treatment Set (NAPS) tablets manufactured by Roche Products Ltd. which were used by UK forces during the 1990–91 Gulf conflict. However, as my written answer of 16 June 1998,Official Report, columns 164–65, explained, MOD let a contract to Duphar BV in July 1988 to replace MOD's holding of Roche tablets; the Duphar tablets were delivered to MOD in February 1989 and distributed to units by August 1989. We therefore believe that the NAPS tablets used during the Gulf conflict were drawn principally, possibly exclusively, from stocks of the Duphar tablets.

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 16 June 1998,Official Report, columns 164–65, on nerve agent pre-treatment sets, if samples of the tablets manufactured by (a) Roche Products Ltd. and (b) Duphar BV, were tested again to determine suitability for use between 1990 and 1995. [48331]

§ Dr. Reid
Samples from the batch of Nerve Agent Pre-treatment Sets (NAPS) tablets manufactured by Duphar BV in January 1989 were analysed at the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment (CBDE) (now known as the Chemical and Biological Defence (CBD) Sector of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) at Porton Down in September 1994 and October 1995. In addition, samples from the batch of tablets produced by Duphar BV in February 1991 were tested by CBDE in December 1992. All of these tests found the tablets' mean Pyridostigmine Bromide content to be within the limits set by the United States and British Pharmacopoeiae (USP and BP).
Other than the tests conducted by CBD (then the Chemical Defence Establishment (CDE)) in October 1990, to which I referred in my written answer of 16 June 1998, Official Report, columns 164–65, the Ministry of Defence is not aware of any other occasion on which the tablets produced by Roche in 1982 and 1983 were tested.