An Australian woman born without arms and legs after her pregnant mother took the anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the medicine’s British distributor, her lawyer told a court last week. The German maker of the drug refused to settle.
Lynette Rowe, 50, of Melbourne, is leading a class action suit on behalf of children born with congenital birth defects linked to Thalidomide. The drug was given to pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s as a treatment for morning sickness, but was yanked from the market in 1961 after it was linked to birth defects. It led to deformities in thousands of babies across the world.
