TDs to probe adverse side-effects of medicines

THE ADVERSE side-effects of pharmaceuticals is to be examined by a cross-party committee of politicians.

The setting-up of the committee was prompted by a number of incidents, he added, including the recent case in England where a drug trial which went wrong left six previously-healthy young men seriously ill.

In return for payment of €2,900 (£2,000) apiece, the men had volunteered to participate in the first human trials of TGN1412, a drug whose German manufacturer hoped would treat rheumatoid arthritis, leukaemia and multiple sclerosis.