• Thalidomide was available in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland from late 1958 until early December 1961. It was sold by Grünenthal’s Swedish licensee, Astra (today AstraZeneca), under the trade-names “Neurodyn” and “Noxodyn”.

• At least 131 Thalidomide babies were born in Sweden, probably more. About 100 of them are still alive today. Other Scandinavian countries were affected as well, with 20 babies in Denmark, 17 babies in Norway, and 8 in Finland.

• In 1965 court proceedings against Astra started. Sweden was the first country that brought a manufacturer of Thalidomide to trial.

• In 1969, after long legal battles, Astra agreed to a settlement payment in form of a (modest) but inflation-proof lifelong pension (average of SEK 6,000 per year, per person / about $1,250 CDN at the time). The affected children and their families were represented by a strong legal team, pushing the case fiercely and aggressively. The settlement arrangement was soon extended to survivors in the other Scandinavian countries.

• It wasn’t until 2008 that AstraZeneca increased the monthly pensions to an average of € 9,000 per year, per person (about $12,000 CDN). In 2009 the drug company paid out an additional average lump sum of €120,000 per person (about $185,000 CDN at the time).

• For the longest time the Swedish government was not at all involved in the compensation scheme. It wasn’t until 2005 that Swedish survivors received money from their state in form of a one-time payment of €55,000 per person (about $85,000 CDN at the time).

• Next to Germany Sweden was the country hit the hardest by Thalidomide relatively to its population.

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