Swiss drug trial victims offered millions in compensation
The Basel pharmaceutical industry benefited from historical experiments on people.
Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has agreed to contribute CHF4 million to a compensation fund for the victims of flawed drug tests in a psychiatric clinic. Some 500 people could be eligible for compensation totaling up to CHF12.5 million.
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Vítimas de testes de medicamentos na Suíça serão indenizadas
The canton of Thurgau was able to reach an agreement with the pharmaceutical company Novartis to share the costs of so-called solidarity contributions, it was announced on Friday. The pharmaceutical industry will contribute around a third of the projected costs for the victims of the drug tests.
In the Münsterlingen psychiatric clinic between 1940 and 1980, unapproved medications were administered to unwitting patients. The psychiatrist Roland Kuhn, who is considered the discoverer of the first antidepressant, was responsible for this.
According to a statement from the Canton of Thurgau, people who were documented as having been administered test preparations in psychiatric clinics between 1940 and 1980 are entitled to apply for financial compensation of CHF25,000 each. Any heirs are excluded.
Based on the cases known to date from the Münsterlingen psychiatric clinic, the canton estimates the number of possible applications at a maximum of 500.
In 2021, a scientific review commissioned by the Canton of Thurgau revealed the enormous dimensions of the tests with psychotropic drugs in the Münsterlingen Clinic at the time.
The Basel pharmaceutical industry benefited from the experiments on humans. Novartis is considered the successor company to the companies involved at the time.
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