Primodos: New study claims to find link between the pregnancy test drug and malformations
A new study claims to reveal how the hormone pregnancy test drug Primodos damages the foetus in some pregnant women.
The report comes after alleged victims of the drug had their legal challenge against the manufacturer and the Department of Health struck out by a judge in May this year.
Primodos was a hormone-packed pill and, in the 1960s and 70s, GPs gave it to women to test whether they were pregnant.
This new report produced by a Swedish professor of pharmacology and toxicology claims the drug could cause damage to the foetus in similar ways to abortion drugs.
Bengt Danielsson, who has worked in the field of drug safety and teratology for 35 years, spent two years analysing data from studies on Hormone Pregnancy Tests (HPTs), concluding the drug had the potential to cause a range of congenital problems, such as shortened limbs, skeletal malformations, and cardiovascular defects.
Professor Bengt Danielsson Consultant in Early Drug Development on non-clinical and clinical safety
Campaigners plan to raise the findings in a meeting on Wednesday with the minister for patient safety, who agreed to look again at the issue following a heated debate in parliament in September.
Previously, the government had apologised for letting down the alleged victims of Primodos, before siding with the manufacturer to block their legal claim.
HPTs were sold under different trademarks, the most prevalent in the UK was called Primodos.
Unlike the urine pregnancy test that was developed later, these were two pills that were handed out by GPs to be taken 12 hours apart.
This would give the woman a rise in hormones, followed by a rapid decline, mimicking the end of the menstrual cycle, which in non-pregnant women would trigger a menstruation bleed.
If a pregnant woman used HPTs, she would generally have high levels of pregnancy-induced progesterone, which maintains pregnancy normally and there is no bleed – and this is how the woman knows she is pregnant.
However, Professor Danielsson’s study suggests that HPTs have potential for a third outcome – to initiate a failed abortion process, resulting in uterine contractions and bleeding in some pregnant women – most likely those women with naturally lower progesterone levels when pregnant.
He argues the hormone spike from the pregnancy test could give women with low progesterone levels uterine cramping, resulting in the womb attempting to expel the uterine lining with the living embryo.
His paper suggests this also decreases blood flow to the embryo, starving tissues of oxygen (hypoxia) and when the oxygen returns, this can also impact recently formed blood vessels within the embryo (so called “vascular disruption”) which can damage whatever is developing at the time.
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Pregnancy testing drugs ‘did cause defects’
This could range from shortened limbs to hand defects – to damaged internal organs such as the heart and brain.
Professor Danielsson argues this “vascular disruption” is the same mechanism that can occur with the morning-after pill, Misoprostol, if it somehow fails to abort the embryo.
He says his hypothesis is supported by numerous factors, not least results in a human clinical trial in Australia, where a proportion of women who used HPTs showed “spotting” and signs similar to an early threatened miscarriage.
He also notes that the types of malformations seen in alleged HPT victims are near identical to those associated with Misoprostol.
He told Sky News: “Depending when in pregnancy of having this hypoxia, the oxygen deficiency event, that also tells you what type of malformations you would get.
“So, if it’s early on, it would be more severe, for example an amputation of the arm. Later, it might be the branches of the latest developed vessels such as the fingers.”
Professor Danielsson is also critical of an expert working group EWG commissioned by the British government, which concluded in 2017 that they could not find evidence to prove a causal association between hormone pregnancy tests and malformations in the embryo.
He argues that the datasets within the annexes of their report show the association exists.
He said: “One of the annexes to the EWG report, highlighted that HPTs may cause embryonic hypoxia by a similar mechanism as Misoprostol and that several types of malformations associated with HPTs were of the same ‘vascular disruption’ type as shown for Misoprostol.”
He added: “Two extensive epidemiogical investigations on HPT-associated malformations, based on totally different populations and different methods, were presented in annexes to the EWG report.
“Both showed consistency in increases of several specific defects, however this important aspect was neglected.”
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Charles Feeny, the barrister who represented the alleged victims of Primodos, said: “It was like they (the EWG) had the pieces of a jigsaw on the table – and it’s a complicated jigsaw and you’ve got to put the pieces together carefully and they just weren’t able to do that.
“What Bengt Danielsson’s done is put all the pieces together – and there you can see that clear picture.
“Hormone Pregnancy tests did cause malformations, but they caused them in a small group of women, the women who were susceptible to it, probably because they had low progesterone levels, even though they were pregnant.”
Barrister Charles Feeny
Mr Feeny also believes the drug would have caused some women to have abortions.
The High Court judgment in May dismissed the legal case in the UK. Previous litigation against Schering, which is now owned by German manufacturer Bayer, also failed in 1982 when the claimants’ legal team decided to discontinue on the grounds that there was no realistic possibility of success.
Bayer told Sky News: “Since the discontinuation of the legal action in 1982, Bayer maintains that no significant new scientific knowledge has been produced which would call into question the validity of the previous assessment of there being no link between the use of Primodos and the occurrence of such congenital anomalies.
“In 2017, the Expert Working Group of the UK’s Commission on Human Medicines published a detailed report concluding that the available scientific data from a variety of scientific disciplines did not support the existence of a causal relationship between the use of sex hormones in pregnancy and an increased incidence of congenital anomalies in the new-born or of other adverse outcomes such as miscarriage.
“The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency supported that conclusion.”
Organised criminal gangs are increasingly using rented houses and flats to operate illegal cannabis farms – and police say it is putting the lives of innocent neighbours at risk.
The gangs often use crude methods to bypass electricity meters to avoid paying for the high levels of energy the farms require, creating an increased fire risk.
Rival gangs also carry out raids on each other’s farms – a practice known as ‘taxing’ – carrying out “significant violence” to anyone who gets in their way, police say.
Greater Manchester Police detected 402 cannabis farms between May 2024 and April 2025, and Sky News was given access to an operation by its officers at a semi-detached house in a quiet suburban street in Wythenshawe.
Inside, officers found one room full of cannabis plants and another ‘drying room’ with the drug packaged up and ready to be distributed. The street value was estimated in the tens of thousands of pounds.
This home on a quiet street was filled with cannabis plants
Outside, officers found evidence that the electricity meter had been bypassed. ‘Abstracting’ is the offence of dishonestly using, wasting or diverting electricity. One person inside the property was arrested.
“The electricity gets bypassed in order to avoid big electric bills,” Inspector Bree Lanyon said.
“Because a substantial amount of electric is required to run the lights, the ventilation, the heat, everything else that’s required in the cannabis farm, the abstract is done in a haphazard way and it can cause fires within the properties.”
Officers found bags of the drug ready to be distributed
She continued: “We’ve seen a lot of fires recently in premises that have been set up as cannabis farms, because of the way the electricity is set up. It’s not safe and the neighbouring residence could be at risk if that property is burning down.”
The risks posed by cannabis farms were highlighted by the death of seven-year-old Archie York in 2024. He was killed when chemicals being used in a cannabis factory caused an explosion in the family’s block of flats. The drug dealer responsible was jailed for 14 years.
Archie York
The aftermath of the explosion which killed the seven-year-old
Police say gangs employ low-level operatives, known as gardeners, to manage and protect farms, who will often plead guilty to drug offences and accept the punishment to keep police off the trail of those controlling the operation.
The use of rented properties – sometimes through rogue landlords – also makes detection more difficult.
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“The vast majority are organised crime gangs,” said Detective Inspector Paul Crompton, from GMP’s serious and organised crime group. “It infuriates me when we take action against these farms and people say ‘It’s only cannabis’.
“What we see with cannabis farms is that rival organised crime groups will actively target those and break in and take the products by force. You’ve got a risk of potentially people being kidnapped or killed without us knowing anything about them.
“Make no bones about it, there’s massive amounts of money to make and they would rather just go and take that cannabis and sell it for themselves. They’ll do significant, violence against anybody that gets in the way, whether that’s the gardener, the police or residents who might get in the way.”
Police check an electricity meter for evidence of ‘abstracting’
Police say landlords need to be aware of the risks and even the chief executive of the British Landlords Association has fallen victim.
One of Sajjar Ahmad’s properties was badly damaged by those using it for an illegal cannabis farm. “I can only explain it as horrific,” he said.
“Our members, when they’ve experienced the problem with the cannabis farm, they are shocked. They didn’t know it could happen. They are not aware of the telltale signs.
“They have the same regrets as what I experienced – you need to carry out regular inspections and, if somebody is offering you a larger rent, then you should question that.”
A personal trainer who admitted dangerous driving on a first date that ended in a police car pile-up has been sentenced to one year and two months in a young offenders’ institution.
Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, was taking a woman home in the early hours of 9 April when his driving triggered a car chase and eventual crash involving five police cars.
Mazyar Azarbonyad. Pic: Northumbria Police
Seven officers ended up in hospital, and one of their cars had its roof torn off in the dramatic collision that left debris strewn across the A1 near Newcastle.
Northumbria Police said while three officers have been able to return to duty, four remain off work.
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
At Newcastle Crown Court in April, Azarbonyad admitted a series of driving offences, including driving without insurance several times after the crash, and failing to stop.
Northumbria Police said officers attempted to stop his powerful BMW in the Whickham area of Gateshead due to its speed and defective headlight.
After being instructed to pull over, Azarbonyad initially stopped before fleeing as the officer approached his vehicle.
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
The car was later spotted on Whickham Front Street where it again made off from police and drove at excessive speeds through residential streets.
Specialist officers from the force’s road policing unit were sent to the area, and at 2.25am got behind the car where it reached speeds in excess of 120mph.
Just two minutes later the collision occurred near the Denton Interchange exit in Newcastle.
Azarbonyad and his female passenger were both uninjured.
The woman, aged in her 20s, was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting dangerous driving but was later told she would face no further action. She later received a caution for drug possession.
Azarbonyad arriving at Newcastle Crown Court on Monday. Pic: PA
Azarbonyad was arrested at the scene and later released on bail with strict conditions including an interim driving ban.
Days later, officers received information that he was driving a red Hyundai i10 from his County Durham home to work in Newcastle city centre.
He was arrested on a garage forecourt in Stanley on 16 April after being caught filling up the vehicle.
Appearing before magistrates the following day, he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, two counts of failing to stop a motor vehicle when required by a constable, six counts of no insurance use, and six counts of driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.
Pic: PA
Defending, solicitor Jack Lovell had told the court the defendant, of Stanley, had shown genuine remorse for his actions.
Returning to Newcastle Crown Court on Monday, Azarbonyad was sentenced to one year and two months in a young offenders’ institution.
He was also disqualified from driving for three years and seven months. If Azarbonyad wishes to get behind the wheel again, he must also sit an extended re-test.
Pic: PA
Following the court case, Superintendent Billy Mulligan said: “It is sheer luck that Mazyar Azarbonyad did not kill anyone that day with his reckless actions.
“What should have been a simple stop turned into him driving incredibly dangerously in a bid to get away from officers.
“He showed absolutely zero regard for the safety of anyone else that morning, and his decision-making behind the wheel put lives at risk.”
Superintendent Mulligan praised the bravery of the officers involved in the pursuit and subsequent collision.
He added: “While three officers have been able to return to duty, four of our colleagues remain off work – and I wish them all the best in their recovery.
“They were simply doing their job, protecting the public from the actions of someone who was not even qualified or insured to drive.
“We have a zero-tolerance approach to this type of behaviour, and we are committed to bringing offenders to justice and ensuring our roads are as safe as possible.”
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