UK Medicines Regulator a "Serious Risk" to Patient Safety

from Medscape UK

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on pandemic response and recovery has raised "serious patient safety concerns" about the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), along with other aspects of a system that, "far from protecting patients, continues to put them at serious risk".

In a letter to Health Secretary Steve Brine, APPG co-chairs Esther McVey and Graham Stringer, with 26 cosignatories, highlighted the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) investigation of Primodos, sodium valproate, and pelvic mesh scandals, which found the response of the healthcare system was not sufficiently robust, speedy, or appropriate, causing some patients to suffer life-changing or fatal, avoidable harm.

Subsequent evidence "leads us to believe that serious patient safety concerns persist beyond even the findings of the IMMDS review", the APPG signatories wrote. "The MHRA is at the heart of these far wider endemic failings," and "those cited in this letter merely represent the tip of a sizeable iceberg of failure."

Medscape News UK has reported increasing concern worldwide about the degree to which medicines regulators are captured by the drug industry. A 2022 BMJ investigation found serious conflicts of interest potentially influencing health policy and approval decisions. Regulatory agency members and expert advisers had financial interests in products being licensed, including several experts on COVID-19 vaccine advisory committees with financial ties to vaccine manufacturers that regulators did not always disclose...

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Medicines regulator failed to flag Covid vaccine side effects and must be investigated, say MPs

from The Telegraph via Wayback Machine

All-party group believe MHRA were aware of heart and clotting issues in February 2021 but did not highlight the problems for several months  

The medical regulator failed to sound the alarm over Covid vaccine side effects and should be investigated, MPs have said. 

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for approving drugs and devices and monitors side effects caused by treatments.

But the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on pandemic response and recovery, an influential group of MPs, has raised “serious patient safety concerns”. It has claimed that “far from protecting patients” the regulator operates in a way that “puts them at serious risk”.

Some 25 MPs across four parties have written to the health select committee asking for an urgent investigation. In reply, Steve Brine, the health committee chairman, has said an inquiry into patient safety is “very likely”.