Pharmaceutical scandal: The long struggle of the Duogynon-victims of justice

Two Sugar-Coated Tablets. Small, round. Else Meixner she swallows with a little water. The young mother wants to check with the hormone preparation, whether you are expecting a second child, a baby at the time, as a modern, applicable test procedures. She says she is actually pregnant. In February 1971, she gave birth to a son. But she realizes immediately that something is wrong with him. “His face was so blue.” For Meixner infinite suffering begins the story. “The lives of cheated,” she says, was her son. The Boy has multiple Heart deformities. Many operations follow. Often his life is on a knife edge – up today.

What has made your child sick?

In 1978, reports the star of malformations in children whose mothers take the medication. But it was only in 1981, the product disappeared from the German market.

It is a long and painful path to the truth, Else, Meixner goes to him alone. Several Hundred cases have been in the subsequent years, in Germany as in the UK. The star reported in 1978 under the title “Thousands of children complain of” over Duogynon and the damage. In 2010, made the victim of André the summer of his case in the star publicly accused the pharmaceutical giant Schering, of the product sold. But the fight seemed hopeless. He and the other victims of 2018 will receive a comprehensive education?

One of the largest pharmaceutical scandals in Germany

There is evidence to suggest that their fate is based on one of the largest pharmaceutical scandals in Germany. Since the 50s Duogynon was regarded as an Innovation. Doctors prescribed a progestogen the combined preparation on the Basis of the female hormones Estrogen and patients whose cycle was irregular or the menstrual completely failed to materialize. Also as a pregnancy test, it was used.

Early on, there were indications that Duogynon severe malformations could trigger defects in children, that the maternal ingestion leads to malformations of the bladder, damage to the Central nervous system, cardiac defects: in 1967, the British children’s doctor Isabel Gal in the scientific magazine “Nature” reported for the first time. The Duogynon manufacturer Schering did in 1969, animal testing. In some doses, there were malformations, fetuses were killed. However, the abnormalities were ignored: The experimental group was too small. Internal documents show that managers and lawyers of Schering attempted to have the incriminating data is not in the Public domain.

In many countries, children have been harmed by the pill. Schering tried in 1978, the coverage in the star to hinder the delivery of the magazine in the UK to stop.

In 1981, the drug was withdrawn from the German market. In vain Affected person complained of in the 80s for damages. There is a causal relationship between the consumption of Duogynon and a deformity, it was not proven, it was said by the manufacturer, and it is still the name of the chemical company, Bayer, Schering, Berlin, Germany 2006 had taken. The claims were Statute-barred.

On Search For Truth

Five years ago, the Injured André Sommer, 42, founder of a German interest group, and his lawyer in the Berlin state archive of 7000 pages of files of a 1980 set of criminal proceedings against Schering discovered. Including documentation of pharmaceutical manufacturer, which could not see the former victims ‘ lawyers.

In the UK, a further Commission at the end of November, your work, the German authorities, by contrast, show hardly any interest in enlightenment. And, although from the documents of the state archives show that Schering’s got in his Acting, apparently, the help of the state: A Professor of the former Federal health official supplied Schering employees with information on internal assessments of the office. He referred to himself as “Advocate of the company Schering, Berlin, Germany”.

In reply to a small request of the Greens (printed paper 19/5065), the star , the Federal government on these points. Asked how to classify the former “lack of neutrality of the competent BGA officials”, writes the government, to assume, to be fulfilled “in its entirety in its responsibility”. On the question of how much time I invested, the Federal Institute for drugs and medical products for the screening of the re-discovered 7000 pages of trial documents, it says: An employee had spent three days in the national archives.

No Willingness To Talk

“You have to make an effort to turn a blind eye,” says the member of Parliament Maria Klein-Schmeink of the Green. The British had convened a panel of experts and hundreds of pages of files from the state archive translate. The Federal government could see “no reason to further elaborate investigations of old Records”. A study of the experts from Carl Heneghan from Oxford to meadow-just that there is an increased risk for malformations have passed, if Duogynon was administered as a pregnancy test. Heneghan evaluated reports of 71.330 women from those decades. So far, the Federal government is not even willing to hold discussions with the Aggrieved party.