In February 2024 the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Primodos (APPG) published A Bitter Pill: Primodos, the Forgotten Thalidomide after more than a decade of campaigning in Westminster.
The report sought to dismantle and highlight the flaws in the 2017 Expert Working Group report that had prompted then prime minister Theresa May to announce the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety review. This Expert Working Group report was relied on by the then government and manufacturers to strike out a compensation claim in 2023.
It also called for the Government to urgently consider scientific evidence published in December 2023 that identified a causal mechanism for birth defects associated with hormone pregnancy tests.
“Families have been sidelined and stonewalled at every turn in their pursuit of answers,” read the foreword of the report. “A conscious lack of government action has shattered their hopes.
“We understand that it is never comfortable for governments to acknowledge such injustices, but the state has a moral duty to these families. It’s time for the Government to face up to its responsibilities; just as it eventually did to victims of the thalidomide scandal.
“Primodos families too have been badly failed, not only by the pharmaceutical and medical establishments, but also the political one. We must not fail them again. Justice has been delayed, and denied, for too long.
“This report presents an opportunity for the Government to turn a corner, fairly and reasonably.”
