Acne drug 'should be banned'

An acne drug which has been linked to teenagers' deaths should be banned in the UK, campaigners will tell health officials on Friday.

Families will tell the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) they believe the drug Roaccutane caused mental and physical harm to their children and ask for its UK licence to be withdrawn, pending further research.

MCA statistics show 15 young people have committed suicide in Britain while taking the drug.

But pharmaceutical company Roche which makes the drug rejects the suggestion that the drug is in any way to blame for the suicides or depression and insist the drug is safe.

Liam Grant, one of the campaigners meeting the MCA, wants Roche to be forced to carry out more studies to find out what effect their product is having on teenagers.

He is one of those calling for the drug's UK licence to be withdrawn, but he said if that did not happen, it should at least be made subject to stricter controls.

Mr Grant said: "In the United States you have to sign a ten page form which shows that the doctors has described the side effects that you understand them and it also has a book that showing how you can identify depression and so on.

"In the UK there's a one page warning which has the smallest possible print and no explanation as to what is depression how do you identify it and so on .. so there's a whole load of issues we have to talk about with the MCA."

'Mood swings'

Joan Gauge from Cornwall said her son Kevin became severely depressed when he was prescribed Roaccutane.

She told the BBC: "He went from being sociable, lively, totally full of life to being morose depressed just suicidal.

"Every day he cried, he wept, he had tremendous mood swings. The worst thing was for us there was no end in sight."

Kevin started taking the drug in the early 90s. He said he was not warned the side effects could be so severe.

He said: "I'm 110% convinced that if I hadn't gone on that drug I would not have experienced what I did do.

"It got horrendous. The knife was literally by my wrists.

"I was at such a low stage and could see no way out of it whatsoever. I was thinking really seriously about taking my own life."

In the US, the family of teenager Charles Bishop, who crashed his light aircraft into the side of a building in Tampa, Florida in January this year, blame Roaccutane for his death.

The US has seen public congressional hearings on the controversy surrounding the drug.

Warning

Although Roche denies Roaccutane is to blame for any deaths or serious mental problems, since 1998 the company has been obliged to include a warning on the packaging that "it may cause depression, psychotic symptoms and rarely suicide attempts".