Primodos Scandal

During the 1960s and 1970s, over a million women were prescribed Primodos, a hormone pregnancy test (HPT) consisting of two pills: one with progesterone and the other oestrogen. Primodos contained hormone levels 40 times higher than modern contraceptive pills.

In the 1960s, Dr Isabel Gal found increased birth defects among babies whose mothers had taken Primodos. In 1967, Dr Gal warned the government’s Committee on Safety of Drugs (CSD), led by Dr William Inman, of the drug’s dangers. Instead of warning doctors, Dr Inman alerted the manufacturer, Schering, of Dr Gal’s research, reassuring them that any birth defects were caused by women inappropriately using the drug.

The CSD ignored recommendations that Primodos be withdrawn and did not issue warnings to doctors until 1975. Primodos remained on the UK market until 1978.

The manufacturer of Primodos, Schering (now Bayer), continues to deny any link between the drug and birth defects.

Want to know more? primodos.org

From 2013 onwards, files found in the Berlin National Archives revealed that Dr Inman knew that women who took Primodos faced “a five-to-one risk of giving birth to a child with malformations,” yet he advised Schering not to withdraw it to “avoid medico-legal problems.”

He later destroyed his own research to prevent its use in legal claims and sought to discredit Dr Gal, describing her as a “rather sad little person.”

A 2020 Sky News investigation questioned the integrity of a 2017 government inquiry into Primodos. It revealed that the inquiry report had been altered and that key evidence linking Primodos to malformations had been removed.

“In 1967 pregnancy testing with HPTs [such as Primodos] should have been stopped […] An apology is due, and support is required for those who have suffered avoidable harm”

Baroness Cumberlege

“In my view, this is potentially one of the biggest cover-ups of a pharmaceutical outrage that the world has ever seen”

Ed Davey MP