'We're the forgotten Thalidomide' - women call for action on historic pregnancy drug
ITV Meridian Social Affairs Correspondent Christine Alsford has spoken to two families calling for the government to take action.
The families of babies born with serious birth defects, caused, they believe - by a pregnancy test drug, are renewing their calls for an apology and compensation.
More than one million women were given the drug Primodos in the 1960s and 70s, and they claim it led to stillbirths and miscarriages.
Primidos, which was made by a company called Schering - now owned by Bayer, was taken off the market in 1978, but the company maintains no causal link has ever been established.
But the women affected have been fighting for more than 50 years for justice.
Nicky Gubbins from Ryde on the Isle of Wight says she was born with facial abnormalities after her mum took Primidos as a pregnancy test.
She said: "I was born with no jaw on my left side, no ear, no eye. So obviously I had a lot of speech problems, problems with feeding."
Nicky had to undergo around 70 operations to rebuild her face, and admits as a child, she was often stared at by strangers.
Nicky's mum Shirley took Primidos - which was used as a hormone pregnancy test in the 1960s and 70s.
Forty times stronger than the contraceptive pill, women were told if they didn't bleed after taking the tablets they were expecting a baby.
Nicky's mother Shirley Lannan said: "To think that two tablets can cause so much damage to so many babies and alter the lives of so many people.
"It's been tough, it has been hard and there should be justice."
Nicky has had severe gynaecological problems, and a curvature of the spine is causing increasing difficulties with her lungs too.
"We are the forgotten thalidomide," Nicky added.
"There's so many of us that are affected and there's no redress, no scheme - as we get older, what is going to happen to us?
"Primados has been forgotten about completely, why?"
Nicky Gubbins says they are 'the forgotten thalidomide'.
Barbara Manning, from Poole in Dorset, says her second baby was stillborn in 1975 after she was prescribed Primidos.
That was the only time she was given Primados and she believes it led to the catastrophic outcome.
"To give birth and leave a hospital with empty arms without your baby is just horrific," she told ITV Meridian.
"To this day I ask myself 'why was I so naive? Why was I so vulnerable to actually accept these pills?'
"You look at photographs and there I am with my three children and it's always there in the back of your mind, what would she have been like?"
Barbara Manning described her experience as 'horrifiic'.
Barbara is calling for government action and an independent review.
"The government has to recognise that these pills were handed over in the doctor's surgery, rarely on prescription and that should never have happened," she said.
"I still feel angry, I have my moments. You know, 49 years later, it never leaves you a horrendous experience like that.
"There's no way you're going to give up. You have to keep on fighting. You have to fight for the baby that you lost.
"All these mother have to fight, continue to fight for their disabled adult children."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they or their children have suffered following the use of hormone pregnancy tests.
“It is right that the government is led by the scientific evidence and the government’s position remains that, after reviewing the available evidence, it does not support a causal association between the use of hormone pregnancy tests and adverse outcomes in pregnancy.
“We are not closing the door on those who believe they have been affected and have committed to reviewing any new scientific evidence which may come to light.”
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A spokesperson for drug manufacturer Bayer said: "Bayer has always had sympathy for the Claimants given the challenges in life with which they have had to deal but Bayer has maintained that there is no causal relationship between use of Primodos and an increased incidence of 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 newborn or of other adverse outcomes such as miscarriage.
"The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European MedicinesAgency supported that conclusion. "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.
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