Lord Sainsbury (Chairman): Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Relationship of the Pharmaceutical Industry with the National Health Service, 1965-1967. Cmnd. 3410 [London: HMSO, 1967].

There never was a public enquiry into what happened with thalidomide in the UK, but the disaster meant that Parliament and the public "suddenly woke up to the fact that any drug manufacturer would market any drug product, however inadequately tested, without having to satisfy any independent body as to its efficacy or safety". These were the words of the (Labour) opposition spokesman on health, Richard Crossman, in 1963.

Thalidomide with withdrawn in December 1961. In May 1965, the newly elected Labour government set up the Sainsbury Committee, whose recommendations were published in September 1967. As Minister of Health in 1967-1968, Crossman was responsible for acting on its recommendations and introducing the Medicines Act, the UK main law on medicines control.

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