Deutsche Welle, 13 May 2013
German authorities have begun probes against former West German drug companies that allegedly used unknowing East German patients for testing. Lawmakers across the country's political spectrum are calling for justice.
German authorities have begun probes against former West German drug companies that allegedly used unknowing East German patients for testing. Lawmakers across the country's political spectrum are calling for justice.
A number of
health and government institutions across Germany vowed in-depth investigations
into allegations of unethical pharmaceutical testing by Western companies
before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
According
to an article by the widely-read German news magazine "Der Spiegel,"
Western pharmaceutical entities, including West German firms, commissioned over
600 tests in former East Germany.
They
allegedly paid up to 800,000 West German marks - about 400,000 euros ($520,000)
- for each study.
Files from
the former East German secret police - the Stasi - and the Institute for Drug
Regulatory Affairs, showed that over 50,000 patients had participated in the
studies, Spiegel said.
The
"Spiegel" article contends that many patients involuntarily took part
in the research to assess the affects of various pharmaceutical products,
including chemotherapeutic substances and heart medication.
Spiegel
quoted from the minutes from a March 1989 meeting at the company Hoechst, now
part of healthcare company Sanofi: "The patient's consent was documented
by the doctor and a witness."
The federal
government's current commissioner for eastern German Affairs, Christoph Bergner
of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, expressed
outrage, reflecting numerous reactions in Germany on Monday, a day after the
Spiegel story broke.
"The
facts available to us must be investigated as extensively as possible and the
background explained," Bergner told the Halle-based newspaper
"Middeldeutsche Zeitung" on Monday.
"It's
time for independent investigations to get underway," he said.
'Massive
scandal'
Claims in
the "Spiegel" article contradict Cold War depictions of a
"good," democratic West Germany interested in helping its isolated
brethren in the East.
It would be
a "massive scandal if thousands of DDR citizens - [whose rights under DDR
law had presumably been violated] were made into cheap guinea pigs," said
Bergner, adding that perpetrators should face legal consequences if found
guilty.
Historical
documentation has shown a policy of encroachment on East German citizens'
rights from the state's birth in 1949 until its fall in 1990.
The Stasi's
wide-spread surveillance efforts and the threat of punishment for activities
deemed threatening to the state quashed the hopes of many who wanted to escape.
In the years since reunification, former West Germany has retained a reputation
for offering refuge to East Germans during the Cold War.
The deputy
chairperson of Chancellor Merkel's CDU group in the Bundestag parliament Arnold
Vaatz suggested that victims might be able to seek compensation if the evidence
proved the allegations were true.
"If
[the testing] resulted in bodily harm all the way to the loss of life, then it
becomes a question of compensation for damages. And then the question of
liability has to be answered," Vaatz told the daily "Berliner
Zeitung" on Monday.
According
the "Spiegel" article, the companies which responded to its inquiries
had distanced themselves from the testing by arguing the studies had been
conducted many years ago. They had also contended that pharmaceutical testing
had followed strict regulations as a matter of principle, it said.
Many groups
investigating
The German
government reportedly began working on Monday to establish funding for the
various investigative groups.
Among
others, the Berlin-based agency mandated with curating former Stasi files and
the regional state of Thuringia called for an extensive investigation and
clarification of the allegations.
The
spokesperson for the Berlin-based Stasi files commission, Dagmar Hovestädt,
emphasized that hospital archives, not the Stasi files agency, would have
archived the source material cited by "Der Spiegel."
Thuringia's
minister for scientific affairs, Christoph Matschie (SPD), announced the
formation of a research group at the University of Jena's hospital tasked with
investigating the case.
Berlin's
renowned research hospital, Charite, also said its medical history research
unit would review the evidence available.
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