Whitehall defends drug risk warnings

Department of Health officials insisted to MPs last week that it
took them less than two weeks to warn against prescribing the
anti-depressant Seroxat to the under-18s, once a risk of links to
suicide and self-harm had been established.

DoH officials were defending the UK’s record on regulating drugs
before the Health Select Committee.

They came under fire earlier this year when Mind’s chief executive
Richard Brook resigned from the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency, claiming it had failed to act on evidence that
adults were being prescribed Seroxat in excessive doses.

But Professor Kent Woods, from the DoH, told the inquiry: “We have
a pretty good reputation for getting warnings out once a risk has
been detected.”