MPs have accused the UK’s medical regulator of hiding the potentially harmful side effects of some of the most commonly taken drugs in the country.
The MHRA, which looks after the safety of medicines and vaccines, was said to be guilty of not being honest about complications and failing to act quickly when medicines were found to be harmful.
During a debate in the House of Commons, MPs warned that the regulator received 75 per cent of its funding from pharmaceutical companies, meaning the body is not truly independent.
“The MHRA and the entire healthcare industry are swimming in a sea of pharmaceutical sharks,” Labor MP Graham Stringer said.
“Pharmaceutical companies make some extraordinarily wonderful products that keep us safe, but they also make huge profits, and sometimes they bring their products to market by telling lies, or certainly by sins of omission,” he added.
The debate was started by Esther McVey, former work and pensions secretary, who warned that the MHRA had been too slow to detect signs that the Covid vaccine was causing harm in some, the Telegraph reported.
He highlighted that there was a “serious problem” with the AstraZeneca vaccine causing an autoimmune condition called induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia.
It comes after a landmark study involving more than two million patients revealed that miracle weight loss injections such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro doubled the risk of pancreatitis, a life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas gland.
Weight loss vaccines such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have been found to double the risk of pancreatitis.
Symptoms may include sudden, severe pain in the center of the abdomen, feeling unwell, and a high temperature of 38°C or higher.
Most people with this condition begin to feel better within a week, but some develop serious complications such as infection, sepsis, organ failure, and internal bleeding.
One-third also experience nausea or vomiting and there is an 11 percent increased risk of developing arthritis, the University of Washington experts also found.
Researchers said they have seen “skyrocketing” use of the shots in recent years, but this is the first comprehensive analysis that looked at 175 possible health-related effects.
And while they have a “wide range” of beneficial effects, “they are not without risks,” they said.
In the debate in the House of Commons MPs also called for the MHRA to be given the power to demand all safety data and trials from pharmaceutical companies.
MPs also heard that British pharmaceutical company GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) had delayed test results linking the antidepressant paroxetine with an increased risk of child suicide.
Similarly, in 2010 it was revealed that Pfizer did not publish data showing that the antidepressant reboxetine was no more effective than placebo.
MPs were also told the Yellow Card reporting system, which asks doctors and patients to report side effects of medicines, was not fit for purpose.
Sharon Hodgson, Labor MP for Washington and Gateshead South, described the system as “broken”.
An MHRA spokesperson said: ‘We are listening carefully to the debate. We will now reflect carefully on opportunities to improve our performance in a number of areas, including our efforts to fully incorporate the voice of patients in all our regulatory activities as we strive to be a more inclusive and transparent regulator.
“The minister’s full response can be read in Hansard.”