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Diageo to pay $89 million to thalidomide victims
By Amy HopkinsDiageo will pay AUS$89 million to citizens of Australia and New Zealand who have suffered effects of the dangerous morning sickness drug thalidomide.
Diageo will pay AU$89 million to thalidomide victims in Australia and New Zealand as a lengthy legal battle for compensation settles out of courtThalidomide drugs were distributed in the region in 1960 and 1961 by The Distillers Company, which became part of Diageo in 1997.
The drug was administered to pregnant women suffering from morning sickness during the late 1950s and 1960s, eventually being pulled from shelves in 1961 due to the discovery that it led to severe birth defects.
The settlement has been reached out of court following a lengthy legal battle for compensation by thalidomide victims.
Peter Gordon, a lawyer for the victims, said outside Victoria Supreme Court: “It has been a difficult and challenging litigation but this settlement will now see a group od people receive compensation, a result that goes some distance to finally addressing a very grave historic wrong.
“The result we have achieved today is a vindication of their courage.”
Last year, Gordon described Diageo, which will also pay an additional AUS$6.5 million in costs, as ‘good and responsible corporate citizens’. Gordon also said that a class action against the drug’s manufacturer Grunenthal will be discontinued.
Diageo, which was created in 1997 through the merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, was not directly responsible for distributing thalidomide.
Last year, Diageo reached a multi-million dollar settlement with Melbourne woman Lynette Rowe, who was born without arms and legs.
Across the world, an estimated 10,000 babies were born with physical deformities after their mothers took thalidomide.