Multimillionaire gay dads face investigation into failed business, newspaper claims
The multimillionaire gay couple who hit the headlines five years ago with their “designer” family are under the media spotlight again. The Daily Mail report that Tony Barlow and Barrie Drewitt’s former company Euroderm Research is under investigation for alleged irregularities.
The newspaper says that the company that conducted clinical trials for dermatological, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products before going into liquidation in March is suspected of faking data.
It claims that the company “fabricated test participants or used results from human guinea pigs more than once to make up numbers.”
“Regulators are sifting through company files and databases to find out if strict laws governing clinical trials have been breached,” it adds.
The newspaper says the the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency will then decide whether to prosecute the couple.
Solicitor John Zucker, for the firm, told the newspaper: ‘Euroderm Ltd is not under investigation by the MHRA.’
Although, the newspaper says a spokesman for the regulators told them: “An investigation is ongoing.”
With the help of IVF they have eight year old twins Saffron and Aspen. Safron is Mr Drewitt’s daughter while Aspen is Mr Barlow’s son. As is their son Orlando.
In 2006, the couple were criticised for posting pictures of their children on Gaydar.
The pictures appear on the couples personal profile and include a picture of the children at the couples civil ceremony partnership earlier this year.
Elsewhere on the page, under the heading “Types I like”, the couple have listed “firemen, married men, muscle men and rugby players”.
The inclusion of the pictures has been criticised by child welfare agencies who argue the childrens’ safety is being risked.
Chris Cloke, of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said: “The NSPCC has child protection concerns about putting images of children on websites as this could leave them vulnerable to being identified and being harmed.”
In the same year, Mr Barlow was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy after doctors warned he would have just four months to live.
2005 saw their son, Orlando, who was born in the USA refused indefinite right to remain in Britain by the Home Office.
