Vol. 407 No. 9
198 Mr. Byrne asked the Minister for Health if he intends to undertake any inquiry into the circumstances in which children in an orphanage in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin were subjected to commercial drug tests, apparently without their knowledge during the sixties and seventies; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Following a press report in October last year, in which it was alleged that the administration of pertussis vaccine to children in a number of orphanages in the Dublin area in the sixties and seventies was utilised for the purposes of commercial drug tests of the particular vaccines, I requested officials of my Department to inquire into the matter.
These inquiries indicate that in the sixties comparative studies comparing 3-in-1, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, and separate Polio immunisation with a 4-in-1, all vaccines combined, were carried out on children resident in orphanages in the Dublin area. The 4-in-1 was in use in the UK at the time. In the seventies, an evaluation was conducted into the use of different types of Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus Vaccines, all of which vaccines were licensed.
As a consequence of the introduction of the Control of Clinical Trials Acts, 1987-90, any trials of medicines would now be subject to the provisions of that legislation.
