Bonn, March 14
After an investigation lasting five years, the Public Prosecutor at Aachen has brought charges against the manufacturers of the drug thalidomide which is blamed for causing at least 5,000 babies to be born malformed and nervous disorders in 5,000 adults.
The case against the managing director and eight other executives of the pharmaceutical firm, Grünenthal, of Stolberg, near Aachen, is expected to begin in about a year’s time and to last for a year. The charge sheet includes allegations of manslaughter, grievous bodily harm, and infringement of the West German pharmaceutical laws.
Dr Gierlich, the prosecutor, said today that about a thousand of the cases of malformation or nervous disorder were abroad, most of them in Sweden and Britain.
20M a month
Thalidomide first went on sale in 1957 and 20 million tablets a month were sold until it was withdrawn by the firm in November, 1961. In several countries, including Britain, it was manufactured under licence.
A spokesman for the firm said no comment would be made until the charges had been studied.
Thalidomide court case this year?
A test damages claim, begun in the English courts five years ago by the father of a handicapped thalidomide child, may be heard in the autumn or very early next year. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Gardiner, said this in a letter to Mr Alfred Morris, Labour MP for Wythenshawe, who asked him to inquire into the progress of the case.
In 1970, the trial in Germany was discontinued under a compromise settlement that gave some compensation for those who claimed to be victims of the drug.
Makers of thalidomide to be tried - archive, 1967
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