Radio NZ | 10 June 2015
Promoted as a revolution in drug safety; Thalidomide (German manufacturer Grünenthal) proved to be a great tragedy – 15,000 malformed and dead babies worldwide.
The lead doctor (Henrich Mückter) in the development of Thalidomide was a doctor in the Nazi regime who experimented with Typhus vaccinations on people in occupied Poland. Charged with war crimes he managed to escape to Germany where he landed a senior position at Grünenthal alongside other Nazi war criminals including a convicted and jailed mass murderer at Auschwitz (Otto Ambros) who served as the company’s chairman of the board.
Grünenthal and the distributer (Distillers) knew of the risk before the drug was eventually pulled.
Check out radio interview with the author of the new book about the Thalidomide scandal Silent Shock.
Originally aired on Nine To Noon, Wednesday 10 June 2015
Australian lawyer Michael Magazanik successfully represented thalidomide victims in a class action suit against its Australasian distributors, Distillers. The lead client was Lynette Rowe, born in 1962 in Australia without arms or legs. She won a multi-million dollar settlement in 2012. During the case Michael Magazanik revealed that Distillers let pregnant women keep taking it despite knowing it was causing severe birth defects. One hundred other Australian and New Zealand victims also received pay-outs. Michael Magazanik, a former journalist, has written about the trial and his investigations into the company that made the drug. Silent Shock by Michael Magazanik is published by Text Publishing.
