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WORLD SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2012
Car bomb kills 15 in Syria
Bach injured in plane crash SEATTLE: Richard Bach, the author of the 1970s best-selling novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull among other spiritually
DAMASCUS: At least 15 people were killed in Syria Saturday when a booby-trapped car exploded at a restive suburb of Damascus in the evening, Xinhua reported. It was the third car bomb blast hitting the country in a single day. The car went off near a mosque in the Sbaineh suburb, reported state-run SANA news agency, adding that 15 civilians had been killed.
oriented books rooted in themes of flight and self-discovery, was in serious condition Saturday after his homebuilt SeaRay singleengine aircraft clipped power lines Friday at 4.30 pm about three miles west of Friday Harbor Airport, according to sources.
CLASSIFIEDS EDUCATION
It’s too late to be sorry Thalidomide survivors on Saturday rebuffed an apology by the German company that manufactured the drug, saying it was an insulting response. LONDON: Thalidomide survivors on Saturday rebuffed an apology by the German company that manufactured the drug, saying it was an “insulting” response to the thousands born disabled as a result of its use. In its first apology for the scandal in 50 years, Grunenthal said on Friday it was “very sorry” for its
How do you wrestle with your conscience when the injustice you have perpetrated has destroyed the lives of children and left thousands of thalidomide victims still enduring pain and suffering, without adequate compensation?
THE
STORY OF A DEMON DRUG
Harold Evans Former editor, the Sunday Times
silence towards victims of the drug, which was sold to pregnant women in the 1950s and early 1960s to cure morning sickness. But victims said the apology was too little, too late for the estimated 10,000 children worldwide who were born with defects — including missing limbs — after their mothers took thalidomide. “We feel that a sincere and genuine apology is one which actually admits wrongdoing. The company has not done that and has really insulted the Thalidomiders,” British victim Nick Dobrik told BBC radio. Victims’ charities estimate that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 people still living who were deformed by the drug, which was sold in nearly 50 countries before it was pulled from the market in 1961 amid one of the world’s biggest medical scandals. Thalidomide babies were often born with missing or extremely short arms and legs. Billed as a “wonder drug” to cure everything from morning sickness to insomnia, thalidomide also caused blindness and malformed organs. The countries most affected included Germany, Britain, Japan, Canada and Australia. It was not banned in Canada, Japan and Belgium until 1962. Freddie Astbury, president of the charity Thalidomide UK, said
1953
The dirty facts
INSULT IN STONE Picture taken on Friday shows a memorial dedicated to the victims of the medicament thalidomide (in Germany Contergan) after its unveiling in Stolberg, western Germany (text reads: In Memoriam For the Dead and Surviving Victims of the Contergan Tragedy). Gruenenthal, the German firm that made thalidomide, has issued its first apology in 50 years to the thousands born disabled as a result of the drug’s use, drawing stinging criticism from advocates for some survivors. AFP / HENNING KAISER
Grunenthal needed to “put their money where their mouth is” and compensate victims rather than simply saying sorry. “If they are serious about admitting they are at fault and regret what happened they need to start helping those of us who were affected financially,” said Astbury, who was born without arms and legs after his mother took the drug. Lawyers for Australian survivors described the belated apology as “pathetic”.
“It is too little, too late and riddled with further deceit,” lawyers for Australian victim Lynette Rowe said in a statement. “To suggest that its long silence before today ought to be put down to ‘silent shock’ on its part is insulting nonsense. For 50 years Grunenthal has been engaged in a calculated corporate strategy to avoid the moral, legal and financial consequences of its reckless and negligent actions of the AFP 1950s and 1960s.”
2004
1968
treatment of multiple myeloma by the European Medicines Agency.
2005
2010
the UK.
The UK manufacturer Distillers Biochemicals Ltd (now Diageo) reaches a compensation settlement after a legal battle with the families of those affected.
Thalidomide is made available on a named patient basis.
1961
1972
2007
2012
The anti-morning sickness drug thalidomide is created in Germany by the Grünenthal Group.
1958
Thalidomide is first licensed for use in
An Australian doctor, William McBride, writes to the Lancet medical journal after noticing an increase in the number of deformed babies born at his hospital, all to mothers who had taken thalidomide. The
drug is withdrawn later the same year.
The Sunday Times publishes a frontpage lead under the banner “Our thalidomide children, a cause for national shame”. Eventually, a total of £28m is paid out by Diageo during the 1970s.
A Kenyan boy with no arms or legs is granted a visa to travel to the UK to receive medical treatment after a campaign by the charity Thalidomide UK. A study shows that thalidomide can significantly improve the survival chances of bone-marrow cancer patients. .
2008
The drug is approved for the
The health minister Mike O’Brien makes a formal apology to thalidomide victims, expressing “sincere regret and deep sympathy” on behalf of the government. The inventor of thalidomide, the Grünenthal Group, releases a statement saying it regrets the consequences of the drug.
n Originally given to pregnant women half a century ago to limit morning sickness, thalidomide caused birth defects in thousands of babies, a tragedy for which the German firm that manufactured the drug officially apologised for the first time on Friday. n The sedative drug, made by Chemie Grunenthal and sold between 1957 and 1962, affected at least 10,000 babies in some 40 countries, especially in Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada. Some estimates put the number at nearer 20,000. n Children were born with stunted, twisted or missing limbs because thalidomide binds to, and deactives, a protein known as cereblon which helps forms limbs, research in the journal Science showed in 2010. n In recent years, though, interest in it has revived as a research tool and as a treatment for diseases that attack the immune system.
PET SHOP
PEST CONTROL