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.

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in 1978, the star of malformations in children whose mothers had taken the drug reported. But it was only in 1981, the product disappeared from the German market.

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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, the victim, André the summer, made his case in the star publicly accused the pharmaceutical giant Schering, which had distributed the drug. Liderbahis But the fight seemed hopeless. He and the other victims of 2018 will receive a comprehensive education?

is 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.

Date Of Update: 04 December 2018, 08:00