Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

The complainant made a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”) to the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) for information it had redacted from pages 9 to 31 of an Assessment Report setting out the findings of a study conducted on the issue of mortality rates in Linezolid treated patients. The MHRA refused to disclose the requested information upon reliance of the exemptions contained at sections 40(2) and 41(1) of the Act. The Commissioner considers that the MHRA correctly applied the exemption contained at section 41(1) of the Act to withhold the requested information. As the Commissioner found that section 41(1) of the Act was correctly engaged he did not go on to consider the MHRA’s application of section 40(2) of the Act. The Commissioner does however consider that the MHRA breached sections 1(1)(a) and (b), section 10(1) and section 17(1) in its handling of this request. Information Tribunal appeal EA/2010/0055 dismissed.