40 years after the thalidomide holocaust:
Chemie-Grünenthal is not a manufacturer of Thalidomide any more.
Chemie-Grünenthal keeps a very low profile when thalidomide is on the agenda.
The only information available from the German Bureau of Commerce about the company is that it is registered as a stock company, manufacture pharmaceutical products, and the address:
Chemie-Grünenthal GmbH, Zieglerstr. 6, 52078 Aachen , Germany .
Chemie-Grünenthal is no longer a producer of thalidomide.
When the drug was banned by WHO (World Health Organisation) in 1961 the production line also became silent in the German town of Aachen . But after the fatal discovery by the sinister Sheskin in 1965 it was WHO themselves that came with a proposal to Chemie-Grünenthal upon a restart of the production; this is according to information obtained by Thalidomiders's.
WHO a reliable customer.
Throughout the following years Chemie-Grünenthal have had a reliable customer in WHO. They have bought their supply of thalidomide to be used in the "war" against leprosy. Both WHO and Chemie-Grünenthal have been satisfied with the situation and none of the two parts have been outspoken about it.
The British First Tuesday-team from Yorkshire Television created a major impact with the 1993 documentary "Thalidomide: The drug that came back", about the ongoing tragedy in Brazil . During their research they managed to come across some information from Chemie-Grünenthal about the company's production rates.
Widespread use.
One reflection that the figures provide is that there is a widespread use of thalidomide both in western countries, as well as developing countries. Information handed on to us Thalidomide's is that Chemie-Grünenthal was exporting thalidomide to 47 countries; this is off-course not confirmed by the company. A conclusion from the listing below with the official figures is that countries such as Morocco , India , Mali , Surinam and Peru are in jeopardy of new cases of thalidomide-affected babies.
The Austrian paper "Der Standard", reports on 7th March 1996 that new-born thalidomide-babies exist in India . And according to reliable information passed on to Swedish thalidomider´s a number of thalidomide-affected children in various ages has been seen in the city of Pucallpa, (a remote Peruvian city in Amazonas which only can be reached by air, known for numerous leprosy cases) by a British medical student working as volunteer in the end of the 1980s. The authorities in Peru are denying the whole thing, as one could expect, and state that no cases of thalidomide-affected children exist in Peru .
Numerous thalidomide-affected children have been seen in Pucallpa , a Peruvian city known as a highly endemic area of lepromatous leprosy.
Here are the figures of the total thalidomide production sold as given by the company Chemie-Grünenthal during the years 1985 to 1992:
| Country | Number of pills |
Austria
| 1 600 |
| Belgium | 1 000 |
| Bolivia | 20 000 |
Bulgaria
| 4 900 |
Cap Verde
| 10 000 |
Czechoslovakia
| 3 600 |
Comores
| 10 000 |
| Cuba | 39 300 |
| Cyprus | 20 000 |
| Denmark | 29 600 |
| Ethiopia | 15 000 |
| Finland | 10 400 |
| Germany | 141 500 |
| Greece | 65 000 |
| Haiti | 5 000 |
| Hong Kong | 4 000 |
| India | 316 500 |
| Israel | 6 000 |
| Italy | 15 400 |
| Korea | 130 000 |
| Liberia | 25 000 |
| Mali | 60 000 |
| Malaysia | 1 000 |
| Morocco | 400 000 |
Mexico
| 130 000 |
| New Zealand | 28 000 |
the Netherlands
| 11 500 |
Pakistan
| 10 000 |
| Paraguay | 30 000 |
Peru
| 200 000 |
Portugal
| 20 000 |
Switzerland
| 46 900 |
Singapore
| 60 000 |
Surinam
| 100 000 |
Sweden
| 33 100 |
| Traskei | 5 000 |
| Turkey | 5 000 |
| USA | 155 200 |
Total 38 countries 2 169 500
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