Britain to strengthen drug law after disclosure delays

BRITAIN is to strengthen the law on disclosing drug trial results following a four-year inquiry into GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s delay in reporting data linking its antidepressant Seroxat to suicide risk in teenagers.

“We will take immediate steps to ensure the law is strengthened, so that there can be no doubt as to companies’ obligations to report safety issues,” Kent Woods, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said in a statement on Thursday.

The watchdog criticised Europe’s biggest drugmaker for not handing over clinical data earlier, but said criminal charges would not be brought because legislation in place at the time was not sufficiently strong.