German Drug Firm Issues Apology for Thalidomide 50 Years Too Late 02/09/2012 11:13:00
The German manufacturer of a notorious drug that caused thousands of babies to be born with shortened arms and legs, or no limbs at all, issued its first ever apology Friday 50 years too late, after pulling the drug off the market.
Gruenenthal Group's chief executive said the company wanted to apologise to mothers who took the drug during the 1950s and 1960s and to their children who suffered congenital birth defects as a result, but he mentioned no compensation.
“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,” Harald Stock said. “We ask that you regard our long silence as a sign of the shock that your fate caused in us.”
Stock spoke in the west German city of Stolberg, where the company is based, during the unveiling of a bronze statue symbolising a child born without limbs because of thalidomide. The statue is called “the sick child” - a name German victims group object to since all the victims are now adults. In German, the name also implies cure.
The drug is a powerful sedative and was sold under the brand name Contergan in Germany. It was given to pregnant women mostly to combat morning sickness, but led to a wave of birth defects in Europe, Australia, Canada and Japan. Thalidomide was yanked from the market in 1961 and was also found to cause defects in the eyes, ears, heart, genitals and internal organs of developing babies.
Victims have been quick to react, saying that it is a disgrace that it has taken them 50 years to apologise, and that the apology was years long overdue after the company, Gruenenthal had long insisted it never did anything wrong and refused to talk to the victims.
They said it was time for the company to put their money where their mouth is. A lot of the victims still depend on specialist care and that runs into the millions.
Gruenenthal settled a lawsuit in Germany in 1972 - 11 years after stopping sales of the drug - and voiced its regret to the victims. But for decades, the company refused to admit liability, saying it had conducted all necessary clinical trial required at the time.
Stock reiterated that position Friday, insisting that “the suffering that occurred with Contergan 50 years ago happened in a world that is completely different from today” and the pharmaceutical industry had learned a valuable lesson from the incident.
A German victims group rejected the company's apology as too little, too late.
German Drug Firm Issues Apology for Thalidomide 50 Years Too Late The German manufacturer of a notorious drug that caused thousands of babies to be born with shortened arms and legs, or no limbs at all, issued its first ever apology Friday 50 years too late, after pulling the drug off the market.
A Libyan Eid Eid Elfitr is the celebration that occurs after a month of fasting and the translation is the breaking of the fast celebration. The feast itself starts with a very early Eid prayer in the Mosque. Chanting in mosques of (Allahhuakbar Wa Lilah Alhamd) God is great and praise is to Allah will echo all over Libya, indeed all over the Muslim world.
Thriving Libyan Community in North London Enjoys Ramadan Every Saturday during Ramadan London’s Libyan community has been hiring the Pakistani mosque and community centre in Willesden Green, North London for iftar, prayers and meetings. The young men enjoy a game of table tennis before and after prayers while the older men joked as they sat outside the prayer room on the warm summer evening.
