Northwick Park Trial insolvency

The lawyer representing the two worst affected victims of the Northwick Park Clinical Trials has said that she is not surprised by today's announcement by Tegenero, the bio-technology company which manufactured the drug that left six people seriously ill in hospital in a drug trial, that it is filing for insolvency.

Speaking this afternoon Ann Alexander of law firm Irwin Mitchell said "I am not surprised that this company has filed for insolvency, however I am surprised they have chosen to do so before the compensation claims were even considered, thereby causing further alarm and psychological distress for our clients.

"However it is my opinion that this announcement should not affect in any way the claims our clients have following this tragic incident. We believe that there are good grounds against both Tegenero, who manufactured the drug, and Parexcel who were responsible for managing the trial."

Miss Alexander continued "I would also fiercely dispute the statement by Tegenero that the adverse reaction of our clients to this drug was unforeseeable. We believe there is increasingly strong scientific evidence which supports our view."

Ms Alexander added, "I shall be writing to Professor Gordon Duff who chairs the expert group set up to learn from this incident. I will be asking him to look especially hard at the regulations relating to companies manufacturing and testing all drugs and the issues of insurance. These companies need to be prepared if things go wrong. The total liability limit on Tegeneros insurance is £2m, which is wholly inadequate and we call for greater scrutiny into the precautions these companies should be made to take."