A pharmaceutical company, Pharmacia & Upjohn, confirmed last night that it had removed glands from dead children and adults in Irish hospitals for 11 years, until 1985. The practice of removing pituitary glands came to light as part of an investigation into organ removal and retention procedures at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin.
The multinational firm confirmed yesterday that the glands were provided by a number of hospitals in Ireland between 1974 and 1985, and it did not confine its search to children's glands.
Then called Kabi Vitrum, the company used the pituitary glands to produce a growth hormone for children of short stature. They were flown by the firm to its parent company in Sweden, which processed them to manufacture the drug, which was then sold globally.
The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, could only confirm in reply to a written Dail question by Mr John Browne (FG, Carlow-Kilkenny), that Our Lady's Hospital received a contribution of £109.50 towards the hospital's research centre for the period between 1980 and 1981.
However, Pharmacia & Upjohn was unable to confirm yesterday how much it had paid for the glands over the 11 years. Neither could it confirm the identity of the hospitals which provided glands or even how many there were.
"We cannot be specific at this stage. We are in the early days of an investigation," a spokeswoman said. "We need to look into this in a lot more detail."
The firm insisted that the pituitary glands were the only known source of the hormone at the time. "This was the only method worldwide of producing human growth hormone for the treatment of children with growth hormone deficiency, which at that time was an area of significant unmet medical need.
"Human growth hormone is used for the treatment of children with growth hormone deficiency, who may otherwise suffer from severe growth defects."
The practice of using pituitary glands ceased in 1985 when a synthetic was developed.
Mr Martin said Our Lady's Hospital had confirmed that in the early 1960s a growth hormone was developed in the US using human pituitary gland as a source, and a National Pituitary Agency was established there to manufacture the growth hormone and prepare it for injection.
"In Ireland, hospitals were involved in the effort to avail of this growth hormone product, there being no other way to treat children with this condition other than the pituitary gland-derived product at that time," he said.
He added that he was informed by Our Lady's Hospital that it was an established practice among hospitals to transfer organs to other hospitals' laboratories. This commonly arose where a second opinion was required or when technical or professional expertise available in a different institution was required.