ITH Pharma

I'd like to make a short statement regarding ITH Pharma and the tragic events that have occurred over the past few days. As a mother, as a pharmacist, as someone who has worked for 30 years in healthcare, inside and outside the NHS, I am deeply saddened that one baby has died and 14 others have fallen ill from septicaemia. As the Managing Director of ITH Pharma, I want to reassure you today that we are doing everything possible to help the regulators, the MHRA, to establish exactly what has happened in this case. We have instituted a recall of the limited number of batches which could potentially have been affected, and all stock has been removed from circulation. Given this action, there is no reason for patients, their families or healthcare professionals to be concerned. From investigations carried out so far, it would appear the potential contamination is linked to a sourced single raw material ingredient. The MHRA was on site all day yesterday and has recommended that we continue using the best practice manufacturing processes we have followed since ITH Pharma was founded in 2008. There is no restriction placed on our licence for manufacturing. To provide some context, in the last twelve months, ITH Pharma has provided 800,000 products of this kind to patients around the UK. Since we founded our first company in 1997, we have continued to receive exemplary ratings from regulators for the quality and safety of our manufacturing process. Given that record, I repeat that we will be doing everything we can to co-operate with the regulators, the MHRA, to ensure that all patients receive the highest quality products possible.