German thalidomide maker Gruenenthal issues apology

The manufacturer of thalidomide has apologized to the thousands of people born with disabilities as a result of their mothers taking the drug. Harald Stock, chief executive of German pharmaceutical company Gruenenthal, said it was "very sorry" it had remained silent on the issue.

 

The drug was sold as a cure for morning sickness in the 1950s and 1960s. Mr Stock spoke as he unveiled a bronze statue symbolizing a child born without limbs because of thalidomide.

"We ask for forgiveness that for nearly 50 years we didn't find a way of reaching out to you from human being to human being," he said at a ceremony in the western German city of Stolberg, where the firm is based.

"We ask that you regard our long silence as a sign of the shock that your fate caused in us."

By the time the drug was pulled from the market in 1961, more than 10,000 babies worldwide had been born with a range of disabilities caused by the drug.

This included shortened arms and legs, blindness, deafness, heart problems and brain damage.

There are between 5,000 and 6,000 sufferers still alive. Mr Stock repeated the firm's long-standing assertion that it acted according to the state of scientific knowledge and all industry standards for testing new drugs at the time, an argument challenged by campaigners.

Martin Johnson, director of the Thalidomide Trust, said that the news that the manufacturers were starting to acknowledge responsibility was welcome but they were still trying to perpetuate the myth that no-one could have known of the harm the drug could cause when there was, he said, much evidence that they did know.

"It's no good apologizing if they won't open discussions on compensation. They've got to seriously consider financial compensation for these people." Some compensation has been paid, particularly by thalidomide's British distributor.

Gruenenthal settled a lawsuit in Germany in 1972 and has voiced regret over the issue but has not admitted liability. Compensation claims are still outstanding, including one key class action.

 Claims oustanding for over fifty years?? It doesn't sound like they are all that sorry to me.