Mothers who took anticonvulsants to control seizures during pregnancy, and whose children have developed health conditions including autism, are facing a fresh blow as legal aid to fight the manufacturer of their medication has been withdrawn.
Parents of children involved in a group action against Sanofi-Aventis, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, claim their legal aid was withdrawn at the eleventh hour.
Their children have fetal valproate syndrome (FVS), a condition they allege was caused by exposure to anticonvulsants during pregnancy. Children with FVS have frequently been diagnosed with autism.
The parents have spent seven years and £3 million fighting their case, but now the Legal Services Commission has refused to fund the remaining £750,000 needed to continue their action. Bernadette Keeffe, a spokeswoman for the group and mother of one of the children diagnosed with autism, said: “They are denying these children, including mine, the right to present the evidence to a judge and the public.”
Anticonvulsants taken during pregnancy have been associated with an increased risk of malformations and developmental delay. In addition to autism, children with FVS have shown a range of conditions including spina bifida, limb abnormalities, congenital heart disease, dyspraxia, ADHD, and speech and language problems.
Commenting on the plight of parents of FVS children, Keeffe said: “The withdrawal of legal aid has implications for all other future cases. It is a test case and if it can happen to these children, then it can happen to anyone.”
The current group action against Sanofi-Aventis specifically targets the epilepsy pill Epilim. In 2008 British researchers said that pregnant women taking Epilim may raise their child’s risk of developing autism.
The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, claimed that children whose mothers took Epilim during pregnancy were seven times more likely to develop autism compared to babies whose mothers did not take an epilepsy drug.
Published: 8 November 2010
