Diageo boosts Thalidomide funding to £45m

Diageo has boosted its commitment to the UK Thalidomide Trust, and is set to pay £45 million to the organisation as part of a new deal that will run until 2037.

Diageo owns The Distillers Company, the Scottish drink company which distributed thalidomide under the name Distoval in the 1950s and 60s. The drug was developed by German pharmaceutical company Grunethal and launched in 1957 initially as a sedative. But it was its use as an anti-morning sickness drug in the late 1950s that led to tragedy, causing birth defects and disabilities in more than 20,000 babies across the world after it was given to expectant mothers, with thousand more potentially affected through stillbirths, miscarriages and infant deaths. The drug was withdrawn in 1961 but at the time, the then health minister refused a public inquiry into the tragedy.

In 1973 the trust was formed to help the survivors as part of a legal settlement between Distillers and those affected. The Distillers was bought by Guiness in 1986 and , who took over Distillers in 1986, took on Distiller’s responsibility and has continued to reaffirm its long-term commitment to support the Thalidomide Trust and its beneficiaries. “This new agreement underlines that commitment,” a statement from the company said this morning.

As well improving the Trust’s long term financial security and allowing it to increase its support staff, the new agreement will see a one-off payment of £27 million to the Trust to help cover capital costs associated with its members’ changing health needs, while also providing for eight new beneficiaries of the scheme.

Diageo’s chairman Dr Franz Humer added: “We have a long track record of working with, and supporting, the Thalidomide Trust in their efforts to ensure that long-term care and financial support for people injured by thalidomide is secure. This has always been important for Diageo and we remain committed to our ongoing relationship with the Thalidomide Trust.”

The drug is still used today to combat leprosy and multiple myeloma (cancer of white blood plasma).