Written question asked by Countess of Mar (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Warner (Labour) on Thursday, 1 December 2005.

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and Syngenta

Question: Which pesticide active ingredients used in experiments involving the ingestion of pesticides by healthy volunteers for Syngenta, Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge, chairman of the agency board of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, has considered since he took office with the board; what has been the number of experiments; and how many volunteers have been involved in each experiment.

Answer: Syngenta has never approached the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for marketing authorisation of medicinal products for human use and does not market any pharmaceutical products in the United Kingdom. During Professor Sir Alasdair Breckenridge’s unremunerated tenure as chairman, Syngenta’s ethics committee has never discussed any human medicinal products. For these reasons, there is no conflict of interests between Sir Alasdair’s role at the MHRA and his role as chairman of Syngenta’s ethics committee. Sir Alasdair has declared this role on the MHRA’s register of staff interests.Sir Alasdair’s involvement with Syngenta is unrelated to his role as chairman of the agency board of the MHRA. We are not able to provide details of Syngenta’s activities as we do not possess them.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 2528; 676 c67WA
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Drugs Pesticides Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency Human experiments Syngenta Breckenridge, Alasdair
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk