16-07-2025
Primodos campaigners have said the government is failing women five years on from a review into the scandal
Five years after an independent review found regulators failed and were responsible for 'avoidable harm' campaigners say they are still waiting for justice.
Campaigners who blame hormone pregnancy test for harming their unborn babies have said the government is failing women five years on from a review into the scandal.
Primodos was taken off the market in 1978 – after 1.5million women had taken it. A 2020 independent review, First Do No Harm, found regulators failed and were responsible for 'avoidable harm'.
How the NHS responded to fears over Primodos as well as pelvic mesh – linked to chronic pain – and anti-epilepsy drug sodium valproate were also reviewed.
Five years on, campaigners are still waiting for justice.
Wilma Ord, 77, of Livingston, took Primodos in 1970. Her daughter Kirsteen, 54, is deaf, severely asthmatic and has cerebral palsy. She said: 'Families can't wait any longer for justice, help or support.'
Marie Lyon, of the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, added: 'The IMMDS review concluded Primodos should have been removed in 1967.
It was removed in 1978, due to failures of the UK regulator to acknowledge hundreds of warnings they had received since 1958 of concerns about severe adverse effects on unborn babies.
'Since the report, 61 of our members have died without receiving justice. How can government bodies be so inhuman as to delay justice in the knowledge many of our families are elderly.'
Campaigner group Sling the Mesh accused governments of 'dragging their feet'.
It said there had been no audit to gauge the harm caused by mesh or compensation and few recommendations had been implemented.
The group's Kath Sansom said: 'The institutional inertia amplifies the suffering – especially the lack of compensation for harm caused to thousands of women who innocently trusted their doctor they were receiving a safe treatment.'
Sharon Hodgson, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on First Do No Harm – Mesh, Primodos, Valproate said: 'This little progress is hugely disappointing.'
In 2023, Primodos campaigners lost a High Court battle for compensation – leaving the claimants potentially liable for costs. Manufacturer Schering, now part of Bayer, has denied a link.
Expressing sympathy with those who believe they suffered following the use of hormone pregnancy tests and pelvic mesh, the Department of Health and Social Care said: 'The government is considering the Patient Safety Commissioner's recommendations in full.'
Bayer said: 'Bayer maintains that no significant new scientific knowledge has been produced that would call into question the validity of the previous assessment of there being no link between the use of Primodos and the occurrence of such congenital anomalies.'
