The thalidomide scandal may have led to 10,000 miscarriages, stillbirths and infant deaths in Britain, according to the former director of the trust that oversees payments to hundreds of people disabled by the drug taken by their pregnant mothers.
Martin Johnson said many families would not have known their babies had been affected by the drug.
“Virtually none of those who suffered miscarriages would have known and that would have applied to around 90% of those suffering stillbirths. The babies were hidden and there was no birth defects register,” Johnson, a former head of the Thalidomide Trust told the Sunday Times.
He believes about 6,000 were miscarried, 2,000 were stillborn and a further 2,000 died in infancy. He based his figures on a number of small-scale studies and comparison with another drugs with chemical similarities.
“There was no criminal trial in Britain and Enoch Powell (health minister between 1960 and 1963) flatly refused a public inquiry,” Johnson said.
Thalidomide, which worldwide maimed an estimated 20,000 babies and killed 80,000, was widely used in Britain between 1958 and 1962 as a wonder drug against morning sickness, but caused severe birth defects. It was manufactured in Germany.
A total of 531 people, 64 of whom have died, have been helped by the trust. A documentary film about the scandal, Attacking the Devil, and the storyline of the BBC’s Call the Midwife , have recently significantly raised awareness of the blunders more than 50 years ago.
The current beneficiaries of the trust are between 51- and 57-years-old. Sixteen people have reportedly contacted the trust since January, seeking to find out if they were affected by the drug.
The trust was established in 1973, part of a legal settlement between the Distillers Company – distributors of thalidomide under the name Distoval – and disabled children whose mothers had taken the drug during pregnancy.
This followed a series of revelations in the Sunday Times under the editorship of Sir Harold Evans, which led to Distillers vastly increasing a support package for those affected. The funds are now provided by Diageo, the company formed by a merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, which took over Distillers in 1990.
The four UK governments also provide grants whose funds are distributed through the trust.