As head of the research department at Grünenthal, all the reports on side effects were forwarded to Dr. Mückter for his information and review. Mückter and others at Grünenthal were more and more concerned about possible losses in sales if a prescription requirement was introduced – something doctors and pharmacists were increasingly demanding. (Around that time Distillers informed Grünenthal that it unfortunately couldn’t prevent the introduction of the prescription requirements for Thalidomide in the UK).

Dr. Mückter released instructions that, according to the indictment, were followed by all the later defendants in the following year: Mückter verbatim: “…everything needs to be done in advance to prevent the introduction of a prescription requirement.”

Source: Anklageschrift (indictment) from 1967, today archived at the National Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia in Duisburg, Germany (Rheinland Division, Gerichte Rep. 139, No. 1–396), pp. 80-81.