During covid, the MHRA failed and allowed the biggest assault on civil liberties and economic prosperity in my lifetime, Rupert Lowe MP said

“How can [the MHRA] possibly be trusted to regulate properly when it is funded largely by the companies it is tasked with regulating?” Rupert Lowe, Member of Parliament (“MP”) for Great Yarmouth said during a House of Commons debate on Thursday.

“The biggest challenge in the MHRA’s history was the covid response, and it failed. It enabled the biggest assault on civil liberties and economic prosperity in my lifetime.”

On January 16, 2025, a debate took place in the House of Commons Chamber regarding the performance of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”).

The subject for the debate was chosen by the Backbench Business Committee.  The debate was opened by Esther McVey MP (Conservative) and focused on the MHRA’s performance concerning patient safety matters, including the Yellow Card System, safety monitoring and the implementation of recommendations from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (“IMMDS”) review, also known as the Cumberlege review.

Along with Sir Christopher Chope MP (Conservative) and Danny Kruger MP (Conservative), Rupert Lowe MP (Reform) raised the MHRA’s failings during the covid era.

“All of us familiar with the growth of the quango will be aware of how these unelected, unaccountable organisations have come to control and dominate British public life – not us, the democratically elected Members, but the quangos. Failure is rewarded and never punished. No organisation encapsulates that point as comprehensively as the MHRA,” he said.

Adding, “Its role is essentially to ensure that medicines and medical devices are safe and effective … How can it possibly be trusted to regulate properly when it is funded largely by the companies it is tasked with regulating?”

“The biggest challenge in the MHRA’s history was the covid response, and it failed. It enabled the biggest assault on civil liberties and economic prosperity in my lifetime,”  Mr. Lowe said.

Concluding the debate Ms. McVey said, “Listening to Members, the verdict on the MHRA is guilty as charged, confirming that it is in need of substantial reform. I feel sure that the Minister will ensure that that reform starts here and now.”

The House resolved:

That this House notes that

• the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) continues to need substantial reform, as recognised by the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (IMMDS), with patient safety concerns persisting and exacerbating since the review’s publication in 2020;

• believes that the MHRA’s 2017 expert working group report on Primodos was deeply flawed, with IMMDS later concluding the drug had caused avoidable harm;

• further notes that the yellow card system for reporting suspected adverse drug reactions is failing, with no process for following up on serious or fatal reactions and conflicts of interest, with 75% of the MHRA’s funding being derived from industry fees, a concern raised in the Fourth Report of Session 2004-05 of the Health Committee, The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry, HC 42-I, published on 5 April 2005;

• also notes the MHRA’s delayed response to reports of myocarditis, pericarditis and vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopaenia following covid-19 vaccination, despite action from regulators in other countries;

• and calls on the Government to fully implement the recommendations in the IMMDS review and to acknowledge the harm done to patients and the financial burden on the healthcare system as a result of the MHRA’s widespread regulatory failures.

Hansard: Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, Volume 760: debated on Thursday 16 January 2025

You can watch the one-and-a-half-hour debate on Parliament TV HERE, Robert Lowe begins speaking at 5:19 pm, and read the full debate in Hansard HERE.