The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has issued a statement about the suspended phase one clinical trial trial carried out in France that left one person dead and four in hospital with neurological problems.

An MHRA spokesperson said:

• "There is no clinical trial taking place in the UK with this product nor has it been used in a clinical trial in the UK in the past.
• Clinical trials in general have an excellent safety record and hundreds of phase one clinical trials are authorised each year by MHRA.
• Before any trial of a new medicine begins in humans, the product will have undergone extensive pre-clinical testing, both in the laboratory and in animals as appropriate.
• Safeguards for clinical trials are well-established and regulations are in place, which specifies how clinical trials should be conducted."