Mothers cannot pursue drug company in birth defects case
Summary of story from The Guardian, 28.01.11
Mothers of children with birth defects were left reeling at the British Law Courts in London yesterday after the Legal Services Commission confirmed its intention to cease funding a major case against a pharmaceutical company.
The legal action, which began six years ago, is being taken against Sanofi Aventis, the manufacturer of the epilepsy drug, Epilim and relates to 164 cases of birth defects in children whose mothers had taken the drug during pregnancy.
The case is being seen as particularly important in the light of proposals currently being considered in the UK to remove legal aid funding (public funding) in personal injury cases.
Samantha Scott, 31, said she was concerned about continuing to take Epilim during pregnancy but that “the doctors said it was fine – in fact, they upped my dose.”
But Scott’s daughter Faith was born with an extra digit, a cleft palate, a hole in the heart, and no muscle tone. Now aged seven, Faith has a mental age of two and weighs only two stone (13kg). She has spent most of her life so far in hospital.
Lawyers representing the families said they were devastated that the case would now never come to court and that the growing impossibility of funding cases such as the Epilim action is leaving pharmaceutical companies increasingly unaccountable.
In a statement the Legal Services Commission said: “We have great sympathy with those who claim to have had adverse effects in connection with this medication, but our funding decisions must always be based on solid legal grounds.”