Key milestones
A working timeline of the campaign. Check each date and detail against the APPG and ACDHPT’s own records before this goes live.
Primodos introduced
The hormone pregnancy test enters use in the UK, prescribed to confirm early pregnancy.
Dr Isabel Gal’s study raises the alarm
Paediatrician Dr Isabel Gal publishes a study in Nature identifying an association between hormone pregnancy tests and birth defects, including spina bifida. She informs the Committee on Safety of Drugs, but the study is dismissed as inconclusive.
First official warning, eight years on
The Committee on Safety of Medicines issues its first warning that hormone pregnancy tests “may cause congenital abnormalities,” eight years after Dr Gal’s findings were first raised.
Jack Ashley MP demands a public inquiry
MP Jack Ashley secures an adjournment debate in the Commons on 26 May 1978, calling for a public inquiry into hormone pregnancy tests. Primodos is withdrawn from the UK market later that year.
APPG founded
Yasmin Qureshi MP establishes the All-Party Parliamentary Group to bring the campaign back into Parliament.
Expert Working Group announced
After intense lobbying, Minister George Freeman MP announces an independent expert working group to review historical evidence on Primodos and other hormone pregnancy tests, tasked with examining links to congenital abnormalities and birth defects.
Expert Working Group report, and the criticism it drew
The Commission on Human Medicines’ Expert Working Group publishes its report, concluding the evidence does not support a causal link between hormone pregnancy tests and birth defects. MPs and campaigners criticise the report as flawed, pointing to inconsistencies with independent academic reviews and a process that left many stakeholders dissatisfied.
Theresa May commissions the IMMDS Review
Prime Minister Theresa May announces the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, asking Baroness Julia Cumberlege to lead it. She later explained that reading the Expert Working Group’s own report convinced her it “wasn’t the slam dunk answer that people said it was.”
“First Do No Harm” published
The Review’s final report concludes Primodos caused avoidable harm and recommends redress schemes for affected families. Theresa May later told the Commons that affected women had no reason to feel guilty, since “the fault lay with the NHS.”
Court declines the families’ case
The High Court strikes out the claims of over 100 Primodos families, ruling their case hadn’t changed since 1982, a decision that relied heavily on the disputed 2017 EWG report.
Campaigning for redress
The APPG continues to press Government for implementation of the Review’s recommendations.
Parliamentary record
Every question, debate and statement on Primodos raised in the House of Commons, drawn directly from Hansard. Dates below follow the group’s own compiled record. Check each against the linked transcript, as a small number of source pages are dated slightly differently to their listing.