Fifty years ago next month Thalidomide arrived in Britain. Expectant mothers with chronic morning sickness were grateful for a remedy. GPs were happy to prescribe it. But the drug, developed by Grünenthal, the German company, and distributed in Britain by Distillers, had huge flaws, leading to 100,000 estimated deaths worldwide of babies in the womb. Of 10,000 babies born, half died in the first year; the rest had extreme deformities. Not until 1961, when an Australian obstetrician uncovered the link between the drug and the deformities, was it withdrawn. Of nearly 500 children who survived in Britain, the Thalidomide Trust supports 457, mainly in their late forties.

The Sunday Times is proud of its contribution in the 1970s to the campaign for adequate compensation for the British victims of the drug and its investigation into Thalidomide’s origins and testing. Neither was straightforward. Challenging Distillers’ negligence in distributing the drug in Britain and pressing for proper compensation risked contempt of court. An injunction on this newspaper’s investigation into the drug itself was overturned only after it was taken to the European Court of Human Rights. British victims did in the end receive reasonable levels of compensation, thanks to their efforts and ours. Thalidomide also marked a watershed in the testing of drugs before their release onto the market.

Half a century later there is still work to be done. In Britain the average sum paid to Thalidomide victims is £18,000 a year. In Germany the maximum is £4,000. Victims in Italy, Spain and Austria receive no compensation at all. Campaigners pressing for adequate compensation for all the victims have taken their case to Grünenthal in Germany and to the German embassy in London but to no avail. Germany’s conduct, given that this was a drug it inflicted on the world, is reprehensible. A worldwide rally is planned outside the German embassy in London on April 3. It deserves to succeed. Until it does, the Thalidomide scandal goes on.