Boy to sue drug firm over 'eye damage'

Published on Tuesday 26 October 2004 00:10

A SIX-YEAR-OLD Glasgow boy is set to sue a drugs company over claims that medication prescribed to treat his epilepsy caused irreparable damage to his eyesight.

Shaun McKenzie is taking the test case against Aventis Pharma, the makers of Vigabatrim, and has launched the action through his grandmother.

The boy from the Summerston area is the second Scottish child, and one of hundreds of epilepsy sufferers throughout the UK, to pursue a similar course of action against the company in a test case expected to be heard at the High Court in London within two years.

In July, another six-year-old boy, Jack Walls, from Townhill near Dunfermline, also took action against Aventis Pharma through his mother, following claims that the Vigabatrim prescribed to control the child’s epileptic seizures almost made him blind.

The drug was one of several prescribed to the boy, who

is now blind in his right eye and has severe tunnel vision in his left eye.

Claimants who believe they have been adversely affected by the drug, which is also known as Sabril and was launched in the UK in 1989, are now seeking damages of more than 100,000 each from the manufacturers.

A spokesman for Avensis Pharma said: "We are defending the claims rigorously. Sabril is licensed in the UK and 61 other countries.

"It is an effective treatment for epilepsy, particularly in resistant cases where other medicines are ineffective. It enables severe epilepsy sufferers to have a quality of life that would not otherwise be possible.

"Sabril has been continually assessed by the scientific body of the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, which endorses its positive risk/benefit profile.

"We cannot comment on individual cases, but we are defending all the claims that have been made."

The law firm representing the claimants, however, says evidence suggests that the drug can cause visual field loss, sometimes known as tunnel vision, and say some epilepsy sufferers taking the medication have been registered as blind.

Claimants say the drug is defective and have accused the manufacturers of negligence and breach of contract.

As many as 200 writs have been issued at London’s High Court by the Plymouth-based solicitors, Wolferstans, and have just been made publicly available. Although the writs give little detail of the claim, they follow the publication of a study in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry into the long-term effects of Vigabatrim.

The study concludes that although the drug is an effective way to treat epilepsy, it can also lead to visual field defects, such as tunnel vision, and other eyesight abnormalities in around 40 per cent of those taking it, with males more likely to be affected than females.

World-wide, about 140,000 people are believed to have been prescribed the drug.