Push for new IVF laws after hundreds of couples trying to a baby left devasted by clinic’s sudden collapse

Ministers are under pressure to reform fertility laws after the Mail on Sunday revealed hundreds of couples trying to a baby were left devasted by a fertility clinic’s sudden closure.

MPs have demanded urgent action following the scandal around Apricity Fertility, which was not covered by existing fertility regulation.

Patients were left fearing for their embryos and facing delays to their treatment after being told by email just days before Christmas that the London-based clinic would be ceasing all operations from January 1. Follow-up questions were met with an automated reply.

One couple, who were in the middle of their IVF treatment, said they were ‘in freefall’ and ‘blind panic’ as a result.

They told the MoS about they spent Christmas asking: ‘Where are our embryos? What will happen about our treatment and the thousands that we have already paid for? We have no more money left!

‘There had been no warning, no explanation, no notice given. We were both in absolute shock. All dreams of being parents lost.’

One woman who had frozen her eggs with Apricity at an agreed price was told she will need to pay thousands of pounds more to keep the eggs stored – or risk losing her chance for a baby.

Another woman who was about to start freezing her eggs says Apricity refused to refund her money after shutting. She only received her money back after a ‘chargeback’ request by her bank.

Apricity partnered with major insurers including Axa and Healix and in 2022 secured £14million of funding to support its expansion in the UK and Europe.

However it was not regulated by the UK’s independent regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), because it managed all patient’s appointments and treatment through an app.

Conservative MP and former heath minister Dame Caroline Dinenage said: ‘This is a classic case of regulation not keeping pace with modern life.

‘We urgently need the government to look at how companies like this are regulated.

‘Apricity were not only taking people’s money, they were taking people’s very sensitive private information – at a period which is incredibly emotional.

‘The fertility industry must be much better regulated.’

Ms Dinenage, who as health minister looked into trying to update fertility regulation, has written to health ministers to push for stronger regulations.

Following the Mail on Sunday’s expose, Peter Thompson, chief executive of the HFEA, also said the government needs to update regulation to cover clinics like Apricity. He said its patients would never have faced the abrupt lack of notice if it had been regulated.

He told Times Radio: ‘Effectively, we’re working with the law which is 30 years old’. He said the current law ‘assumes perfectly reasonably for 1990 that all medical services are delivered at a clinic in a physical location. What we’re seeing now with the Apricity and with some other clinics is lots of services now are moving online.’

He said Apricity patients would ‘quite reasonably assume that they were somehow covered by regulation. In fact, they found themselves not to be. This is a classic case in which the law has not kept pace with the way in which modern life is increasingly organized.’

‘IVF is tough enough and have the clinic you’re registered with go bust.’

The clinic, which blamed ‘financial challenges’ for the sudden closure, had boasted a 46 per cent success rate per IVF cycle, compared to the UK average of 31 per cent, thanks to AI technology.

A spokesman for Apricity said it ‘faced sudden and irreversible financial difficulties in December when planned investment from a new investor was withdrawn’. 

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We are currently considering advice from the HFEA about priorities for law reform covering their regulatory powers.’