Post date: Sep 02, 2012 12:40:40 PM
Thalidomide, developed by the German firm Gruenenthal, was marketed internationally to pregnant women in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a treatment for morning sickness.
About 10,000 babies were born around the world with defects caused by the drug, mostly malformed limbs or missing arms or legs.
Gruenenthal, the firm behind Thalidomide, apologises 50 years after the drug was withdrawn, saying it could not have know the effects, but victims in Britain and Australia say the company's apology is inadequate.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 1, 2012) (ITN) - The spokesman for a group representing victims of thalidomide in the UK on Saturday (September 1) said an apology from the German inventor of the drug that caused birth defects in thousands of babies around the world was too little too late.
Gruenenthal, which says it had paid roughly 500 million euros ($629 million) to victims by 2010, unveiled a commemorative statue on Friday (August 31).
At the ceremony, its chief executive, Harald Stock, said the company was sorry for what had happened to the victims and for the amount of time it had taken to offer an apology.
Several thousand victims of thalidomide, sold in Germany under the brand name Contergan and elsewhere as Distaval, are still alive.
The spokesperson for the Thalidomide Trust, Nick Dobrik, said it was clear that the company knew the risks involved in taking the drug.
"Gruenenthal pretends that there was no testing knowledge available at that time which said that giving drugs to pregnant women could cause birth deformities. It was well known in the 30s, 40s and 50s that it could happen, and all reputable pharmaceutical companies as a normal routine did this test to make sure their drugs would not effect the newborn foetus," he said.
"We believe an apology should be unreserved and not with conditions. It is very strange when an apology is not telling the truth, it's an outright lie. An apology should be something which admits wrong doing, this doesn't and therefore Thalidomiders are very upset about it," Dobrik added.
It was not clear whether the 500 million euros in payments had been to victims in Germany only or also abroad, where other firms marketed the drug.
German thalidomide victims get a monthly pension of up to 1,116 euros from a trust to which Gruenenthal contributes.
The cases have been closely watched in the United States, where a complaint has been filed against GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Avantor Performance Materials and Gruenenthal, with several plaintiffs claiming their birth defects resulted from their mothers' use of thalidomide.
The thalidomide scandal triggered a worldwide overhaul of drug-testing regimes and boosted the reputation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which refused to approve the drug.
Gruenenthal said it had acted to the best of its knowledge.
Many German thalidomide victims stayed away from the unveiling of Gruenenthal's statue, which portrays a child with shortened arms, calling it a public relations stunt.
Dobrik said that there was a strong argument that the British government had known about the risks involved in taking thalidomide as well.
"The government itself is partly responsible for what happened in this case. This drug was only approved by the NHS (National Health Service) because the government agency called the Cohen committee said this was a drug of proven remedy," he said.
An exhibition currently being staged by the Wellcome Collection in central London, provides a timely insight into the scandal.
The collection hosts some of the artificial limbs used by children in the 1950s and 60s in Britain, as well as early video of the sufferers.
The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games on Wednesday (August 29) dedicated a portion of the celebrations to a famous victim of thalidomide, Alison Lapper, with a large statue of her when she was pregnant forming the centre point of the Olympic stadium.