There is "no evidence" that children in mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland were used in medical trials, the independent chair of a working group into the homes has told a victims' group.
Survivors in the Republic have already spoken of their shock at learning that children in several homes had been used in 13 medical trials, including for an experimental '5 in 1' vaccine against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.
The details were outlined in a report published in the Republic last week.
A report into homes in the north is due to be published by the end of this month.
Following the publication of the report in the Republic, Margaret McGuckin, from Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (Savia), wrote to Judith Gillespie, chair of Stormont's inter-departmental group into mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and historical clerical child abuse.
Ms McGuckin raised concerns that children in the north may also have been involved in medical trials without the consent of their birth mothers.
However, Ms Gillespie has said research by academics from Queen's University, Belfast, and Ulster University has found "no evidence" that children in either the homes or Magdalene laundries were subjected to trials.
She also said no children were buried at homes in the north.
"A possible explanation for both is offered by the QUB/UU research," she wrote in an email.
"Mothers and their babies did not spend long periods of time in Mother and Baby Homes in Northern Ireland, unlike the Republic of Ireland where some children remained in the institutions for long periods after their mothers left."
Ms Gillespie also said that more research was needed into infant mortality rates at homes in the north. Around 9,000 babies died in homes in the Republic, last week's report found.
She wrote that "in order to be able to reach definitive conclusions in some areas, particularly infant mortality, there would need to be follow up research into the other institutions where babies were sent when separated from their mothers".
"This includes baby/children’s homes, and this is an area which I see as a priority going forward, once the QUB/UU research is published," she wrote.
Ms McGuckin said it was clear that more research needed to be carried out in order to satisfy victims' concerns.
"They need to reinvestigate and do a bit more work into the medical trials," she said.
She said she is concerned that her vulnerable brother Kevin, who was cared for in institutions Nazareth Lodge in Belfast and Rubane House in Kircubbin, Co Down, may have been subjected to trials aged 12 or 13.
She said she remembered "a very long antique-type needle stuck into him quite often".
Ms McGuckin said her brother has been in a nursing home for 40 years due to the sexual, physical and emotional abuse he suffered in the institutions.
