Stock Photo - Contergan affected children show off their motor pool, 30 May 1968. The children are being prepared to live with healthy children at a day care center in the Klettenberg disctrict in Cologne, Germany. In the late 1950s and 60s about 8,000 to 12,000 children were born with serious deformities, many died, due to the use of the sleeping drug Contergan by their mothers during pregnancy. Drugs containing thalidomide, Contergan among them, were distributed starting 1 October 1957 by Stollberg (located near Aachen, Germany) based pharmaceuticals company Grünenthal without proper testing and without barring the drug's use during pregnancy. Reports of serious damages to people's health were ignored until a newspaper article in November 1961 forced the company to stop all sales and withdraw all products containing thalidomide. - Köln/Nordrhein-Westfalen/Germany