Drug Firm Sued For Thalidomide Damage

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30399, 25 March 1964, Page 18

Drug Firm Sued For Thalidomide Damage

CLEVELAND (Ohio), March 23. A 2,200,000-dollar damages suit was filed against a drug company today on behalf of badly-deformed twin two-year-old boys whose mother took thalidomide during pregnancy. The mother said she had used the drug sold by Richard-son-Merrell Inc. under the trade name Kevadon. Mr Craig Spangenberg, lawyer for the twins, said that in addition to the suits filed for his clients, Peter and John Settle of Hamilton. Ontario, Canada, seven other lawsuits seeking about 10,000,000 dollars would be filed in Cleveland within the next two weeks on behalf of other alleged victims of the drug. The twins were born on January 3, 1962, to Mr and Mrs John Settle. The couple had four other normal children, Mr Spangenberg said. The suit claims that the drug firm manufactured Kevadon and distributed it to physicians for clinical testing on human beings, that the company was negligent in representing that its product was safe for pregnant women and breached an implied warranty that ijevadon was “wholesome, safe, non-toxic

(N Z. Preis Atsociation—Copvriaht)

and reasonably fit for human consumption.” The seven additional suits to be filed are for deformities to two Cincinnati girls, one Canadian boy and four other girls, Mr Spangenberg said. All their mothers received the drug in the early stages of their pregnancies. The drug was developed in West Germany and was blamed for causing deformities in some 4000 children in Europe, where the drug was on the market until the epidemic of deformities was traced to it It was kept off the American market by Dr. Frances Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration, who refused to permit its sale until it had been more thoroughly tested. She was later honoured for It action. While it was never sold, the drug was distributed to more than 1100 American physicians in a clinical testing programme. The Hollywood office of the American Humane Association, mindful of the odds against a person reaching star status, says the odds are rough on dogs too and estimates that about one dog in 6 million reaches animal stardom.