Fifty years ago, The Sunday Times launched a campaign to compensate for the victims of thalidomide, a drug that causes thousands of babies around the world to be born with deformities.
Thalidomide, like sodium valproate, harms babies as they form in the womb. It was sold in the United Kingdom in 1958 as a remedy for insomnia and morning sickness. Found to be safe in animal experiments but never tested on humans, it has been marketed in 46 countries and has become one of the best-selling drugs in the world. By the time it was withdrawn in the early 1960s, the drug was thought to have killed 100,000 babies in the womb and left another 10,000 severely disabled. In the United Kingdom, he left behind more than 460 children with disabilities. Many were born
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