A Sky News investigation into Primodos, a hormone pregnancy test, has been aired on TV, sharing the harsh realities of the impact the drug had on its victims.
Our firm’s Head of Medical Liability, Lisa Lunt, was interviewed by Sky News for the Primodos investigation segment, sharing her thoughts on the latest evidence unveiled in the case.
“I think that Liz’s freedom of information act request is incredibly important,” she said.
“It shows that key changes were made to the report and I have not seen any evidence to suggest that those changes were endorsed by the entire working group: it looks like they were made at the last minute.”
Primodos and other forms of Hormone Pregnancy Tests (HPT) were pills given to women between 1956 and 1978 by GPs to test for pregnancy. These hormone-based drugs worked by triggering a period if the woman was not pregnant and replaced urine-based samples as a faster way to obtain results.
The drugs were removed from the market in 1977, but not before thousands of women had used it and resultantly given birth to babies with malformations.
The Sky News investigation shows how seemingly minor changes in a working group report ‘completely changed the meaning’ of the document and is now crucial evidence in the ongoing trial.
Lisa Lunt explained: “It gave a totally different meaning to the report and it’s something that, as lawyers, we’re looking at very, very closely indeed. It’s a report that will be relied upon by defendants.”
Bayer is facing a multi-million pound lawsuit against the alleged victims of the drug, but at present do not accept liability and claim there is no link between the birth defects and their product.
We are leading the legal case for the victims of Primodos. If you or anyone in your family has any birth defects that you believe were caused by a hormone pregnancy test, please get in touch.
