The UK’s medical regulator has been accused by MPs of concealing the potentially harmful side effects of some of the nation’s most commonly taken drugs.
The MHRA, which overseas the safety of medicines and vaccines, was said to be guilty of failing to be honest about complications and failing to act quickly when drugs were found to be harmful.
During a debate in the House of Commons, MPs warned that the regulator received 75 per cent of its funding from pharmaceutical companies, meaning the body is not truly independent.
‘The MHRA and the whole of the health industry are swimming in a sea of pharmaceutical sharks,’ Labour MP Graham Stringer said.
‘Pharmaceutical companies produce some extraordinarily wonderful products that keep us safe, but they also produce huge profits, and sometimes they get their products onto the markets by telling lies, or certainly by sins of omission,’ he added.
The debate was brought by Esther McVey, the former work and pensions secretary, who warned the MHRA had been too slow at detecting signs that the covid vaccine caused harm in some, the Telegraph reported.
She highlighted that there was a ‘serious problem’ with the AstraZeneca vaccine causing an autoimmune condition called induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia.
It comes after a landmark study involving more than two million patients revealed that miracle weight loss jabs, such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, double the risk of pancreatitis — a potentially life-threating swelling of the pancreas gland.
Weight loss jabs, such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, have been found to double the risk of pancreatitis
Symptoms can include sudden and severe pain in the centre of the tummy, feeling or being sick and a high temperature of 38C or more.
Most people with the condition start to feel better within a week, but some go on to develop serious complications such as infection, sepsis, organ failure and internal bleeding.
A third also suffer nausea or vomiting and there is an 11 per cent higher risk of developing arthritis, the experts from Washington University also discovered.
The researchers said they have seen ‘skyrocketing’ use of the jabs in the past few years but this is the first comprehensive analysis which looked at 175 possible health-related effects.
And while they have a ‘wide array’ of beneficial effects, they are ‘not without risks’, they said.
The debate in the House of Commons also saw MPs call for the MHRA to be given the power to demand all safety and trial data from pharmaceutical companies.
MPs also heard British pharmaceutical company GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) had held back test results that linked the antidepressant paroxetine to an increased risk of child suicide.
Similarly, in 2010 it was revealed that Pfizer did not publish data that showed the antidepressant reboxetine was no more effective than placebo.
MPs were also told the Yellow Card reporting system, which asks doctors and pateients to report side effects of drugs, was not fit for purpose.
Sharon Hodgson, the Labour MP for Washington and Gateshead South called the system ‘broken’.
An MHRA spokesperson said: ‘We listened closely to the debate. We will now reflect carefully on the opportunities to improve our performance in several areas, including our efforts to fully embed the patient voice throughout all our regulatory activities as we strive to be a more inclusive and transparent regulator.
‘The minister’s full response can be read on Hansard.’
