Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are supporting the pharmaceutical company Bayer in seeking to strike down an attempt by victims of Primodos to have their case heard; if so, why; and whether they will seek to establish an independent mediation process to ascertain whether there is a causal link between Primodos and birth defects.

The Department is, with others, defending court proceedings which were issued in December 2019 by claimants who contend that hormone pregnancy tests (HPTs), such as Primodos, caused birth defects.

The Department has made an application to strike out the claim by individuals which allege that HPTs caused them harm, which is due to be heard in May 2023. The scientific evidence has been reviewed on a number of occasions and most recently by the Commission on Human Medicines Expert Working Group on Hormone Pregnancy Tests. The Expert Working Group concluded that the available scientific evidence did not support a causal association. It is therefore not considered appropriate to establish an independent mediation process.