Government apologises to thalidomide victims

15 January 2010

Health minister Mike O’Brien has given thalidomide victims the apology they campaigned for.

In it, the government expressed its “sincere regret” and “deep sympathy” for the part official approval played in the decision by pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s to take the drug as a treatment for morning sickness.

He told the Commons that the government acknowledged both the physical hardship and the emotional problems faced by children damaged by the drug.

The minister announced that the victims would receive a further £20m in government compensation, above the amount that importers of the drug, Distillers, agreed to pay in the 1970s.

The UK was the second biggest user of the drug after Germany. About 2,000 babies were born with problems, half of them dying within months of birth.

The government funding package reflects the fact that survivors are living longer than expected.