5 Aug 2026
Lords committee chair Baroness Sheehan suggested the VMD is playing catch-up to a growing body of evidence and questioned its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
Concerns raised that VMD is "too close" to pharmaceutical industry.
The VMD needs to catch up with growing evidence of the environmental impact of veterinary parasiticides, a senior official has suggested.
The call came from Baroness Sheehan, chair of the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee, after it released a report arguing pet parasite medication (PPM) use “is not supported by robust scientific evidence” and is “potentially causing widespread damage” to the environment.
The VMD launched a PPM consultation in April ahead of a potential change to their general sale marketing authorisation – which the report is urging – but Baroness Sheehan said: “I think they’re behind the curve for sure.”
She said the committee is “worried” the VMD is not requiring ecotoxicological environmental risk assessments of PPMs, adding: “I think that’s very much needed, and the committee did express concern from evidence we heard [the VMD] is too close to the industry that makes and sells these products, and there were several examples given of instances where this was the case.”
The report warned of a “high” regulatory capture risk and recommended the Government review the relationship between the industry and UK and international veterinary medicine regulators.
The VMD role as an environmental regulator has also recently been questioned.
Asked if a full overhaul of the directorate is needed, Baroness Sheehan replied: “We’re hoping that the Government will have conversations.
“I know the VMD really values its relationship with the industry. We don’t want to break that relationship, but I do think that we need to separate distance between the VMD and the industry in the same way that [in human medicine], the regulator and the industry are kept at a healthy distance.”
She concluded: “We know the harms that these substances can do, and I think it’s a real worry that we’re not taking the abundant use of these chemicals as seriously as we should be.”
In response to the findings, a VMD spokesperson said: “We recognise that while pet parasite treatments play an important role in protecting pets and people from parasites and the diseases they carry, they are entering our watercourses which could be contributing to wider environmental impacts.
“That’s why we have consulted on this issue to help us maintain appropriate market availability of these substances while also protecting wildlife and the environment.”
The body said it welcomed the report and will consider its findings along with available scientific evidence.
On the relationship between the VMD and the pharmaceutical industry, the regulator said it is independent and while it engages with stakeholders including the industry, that does not determine regulatory outcomes or its decisions, which are made objectively and in the public interest.
NOAH deputy chief executive Donal Murphy added: “The decisions are made fully and finally by the regulators.
“We think that the same approach is taken in many other sectors, but we think dialogue of that nature [between regulators and industry] about scientific and technical matters is correct, reasonable and appropriate.”