THE organisers of a medical conference which will discuss conflicts of interest within the pharmaceutical and medical industries have expressed dismay that the Irish Medicine Board has refused to attend.

DRUG companies have too much influence over the medicines used in this country, a UCC sociologist claimed yesterday.

THE national committee set up to coordinate services for people with haemophilia held its last meeting 13 years ago and was little more than a “rubber stamp” mechanism up to then.

THE issue of tainted blood was the greatest bureaucratic scandal of the 20th century in Ireland. It has already involved more than 75 premature deaths. That total is likely to increase to more than €200.

The Minister for Health has insisted his department was not aware of claims that children may have been injected with an animal vaccine in 1973.