FETAL VALPROATE SYNDROME

That this House notes with concern the withdrawal of public funding from the Fetal Anti-Convulsant Litigation in November 2010; further notes that the taxpayer is now covering the additional health, education and welfare costs incurred by families affected by fetal valproate syndrome; believes the Department of Health and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency could have avoided the large numbers of people affected, since the drug sodium valproate came onto the market in the late 1970s, by informing patients treated with anti-convulsant medications and women of child-bearing age; and calls for an independent inquiry into why information has been withheld from the public concerning the disastrous way in which sodium valproate has affected pregnant women and their children.