To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many pharmaceutical companies have been prosecuted for withholding information regarding their products since 1992. (196407)

[holding answer 25 March 2008]: I have been asked to reply.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) records show no prosecutions of this kind since 1992.

As a result of the recent investigation into GSK (the subject of a written ministerial statement on 6 March 2008), the MHRA plans further stringent regulations to place obligations on companies report safety issues timeously.