One of the Grünenthal testers, Dr. Hermann Jung from the Medial University Clinic in Cologne, concluded after only four weeks that Thalidomide was ready to go on the market. He had tested the new substance on 20 patients.

Dr. Jung was not directly employed by Grünenthal, however he received regular monthly payments for testing new Grünenthal drugs and had conducted many tests for the company before.

Another tester, Dr. Baumann, tested K 17 on about 100 patients for approximately 4 to 6 weeks. Baumann said he was quite “excited” about its sedative effect. His progress reports were however never published by Grünenthal. Apparently Grünenthal didn’t like the “critical remarks” Baumann’s report also entailed.

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), p. 48ff.