Action over epilepsy drug 'could rival thalidomide'

Celia Hall, " Action over epilepsy drug 'could rival thalidomide'",
Telegraph, May 22, 2006,
Link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/22/ndrug22.xml&s***=/news/2006/05/22/ixuknews.html

Around 140 families who claim that their children were damaged by an
epilepsy drug taken in pregnancy have begun a court action that they
say could be "as big as thalidomide".

They say that 37,500 British children have "foetal anti-convulsant
syndrome", a range of neural, behavioural and physical disorders, which
they claim may have been caused by their mothers taking anti-convulsant
drugs while pregnant.

Disorders include cleft palate and spina bifida, learning difficulties,
behavioural problems and abnormalities in movement, speech, vision and
hearing.

The court action applies specifically to the drug sodium valproate,
which is only one of several anti-convulsant medicines. A trial date
has been set for October 2008.

Many of the mothers were prescribed the brand-named product Epilim,
made by Sanofi-Synthelabo. The drug was also available in unbranded
generic forms. To date Sanofi is the only company involved in the
action.

In order to gauge the scale of the litigation, the High Court has
issued a cut-off date for families to apply to be put on the register
of claimants.

David Body, of Irwin Mitchell, the solicitor handling the case, said it
had 140 families registered but expected "some numbers" more.

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