Six decades after the thalidomide sleeping pill was withdrawn from the market, the owner's family of the manufacturer apologized to the victims for the first time.
For the "entire content of this time of 60 years" he apologizes on behalf of his entire family, said Michael Wirtz on behalf of the family who owned the pharmaceutical company Grünenthal.
The apology is addressed to "a large and also essentially unknown quantity of affected people in Germany, but also in Europe."
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Contergan tablets (in the house of history): fateful drug
Photo: Hermann J. Knippertz / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wirtz expressed the personal words in a recorded conversation with Georg Löwenhauser, the former chairman of the Federal Association of Thalidomide Victims.
An excerpt from the video was played on Saturday at an online event organized by the Federal Association to mark the 60th anniversary of the drug's withdrawal from the market.
In the video, the former managing director of Grünenthal said that those affected expected the Wirtz family to express themselves, namely "not hiding behind a legal entity from Grünenthal GmbH."
He emphasized: "And I am doing this in all frankness and highly officially under witnesses, that I expressly apologize for these issues that have happened to you in all these families."
Praised as harmless, tragic consequences
Contergan was developed under the direction of Heinrich Mückter.
The medical director at Grünenthal Chemie had experimented with the typhus virus on concentration camp inmates for the Nazi regime during the Second World War.
From 1946 he worked for Grünenthal Chemie in Stolberg near Aachen.
Contergan was introduced in October 1957 and was on the market for four years.
Mückter was later accused of ignoring evidence of nerve damage and deformities for too long.
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Brown history: The Contergan inventorBy Armin D. Steuer
Contergan with the active ingredient thalidomide was a sleeping and sedative, also one against pregnancy sickness, which was sold without a prescription and advertised as harmless. It led to one of the worst scandals in post-war history. In Germany alone, around 5,000 children were born with malformations, and around 10,000 internationally. If they survived, their arms, legs, or both were often shortened after their mothers took Contergan during pregnancy.
After warnings from doctors and media reports about deformities in children, Grünenthal withdrew the fatal drug, which at times had brought the company almost half of its sales, off the market on November 27, 1961.
Many of the "Contergan children" of the late 1950s and early 1960s have already died.
Around 2400 thalidomide victims live today with considerable impairments.
"What will become of us now that we are getting older?"
For many of these people, the disaster is by no means over, according to a statement by the Federal Association of Thalidomide Victims. Decades of incorrect loading of the spine and joints have resulted in consequential damage that would result in an increased need for therapy. Many of those affected had been cared for by their parents for decades, but they themselves were now in need of help and care. In the declaration they ask: "What will become of us now that we are getting older?"
»From many conversations we know about the meaning of this gesture for many people affected by Contergan and their parents.
We therefore very much welcome this step, "said Grünenthal in a reaction to Wirtz's statement.
"It is an important point on the path of dialogue between those affected, Grünenthal and the owner family."
Löwenhauser, who took part in the online event broadcast from Hamburg on Saturday, said of the apology that he was pleasantly surprised.
She is "definitely meant absolutely seriously."
Grünenthal also deals extensively with the Contergan scandal on the company's website.
According to affected groups, a clear request for forgiveness is important for many victims.
The company apologized in 2012 for not approaching the victims earlier.
At the time, victims' associations had described this as worthless or even insulting.
Grünenthal emphasized in a statement from Aachen on Saturday: “We cannot change what has happened.
But with our Grünenthal Foundation we want to take on responsibility to support those affected by thalidomide and make our contribution to improving the quality of life. "The thalidomide tragedy is part of the company's history" and we deeply regret the far-reaching consequences. "
