Haunted by the spectre of thalidomide scandal

THE thalidomide drugs scandal is the biggest in the history of the pharmaceutical industry and left about 10,000 babies deformed at birth.

The drug was licensed in Britain for treatment of morning sickness in 1958 by the Grunenthal Group, a German firm.

Doctors soon started to raise concerns that they were seeing high numbers of children born with deformed limbs.

The drug was withdrawn globally in 1961 but a long battle for compensation followed. In the 1970s a campaign led by the British Press culminated in £28million being paid out by the UK maker Distillers Biochemicals – now called Diageo.

It took until 2010 for the Government to apologise, expressing ‘sincere regret and deep sympathy’ to victims for its role in the scandal.

Aberdeen University scientists found the precise reason thalidomide caused limb defects in 2009. They established that a component of the drug prevented the growth of new blood vessels in developing embryos, stunting limb growth.

Health officials insist drug regulation is far safer now than in the 1950s.

The ‘adverse drug reaction’ reporting scheme – which is now run by the drugs regulator the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) – was introduced in 1964 in the wake of the thalidomide tragedy.