The Ministry of the Interior in North Rhine-Westphalia informed the health authorities of the federal states, the Federal Health Office (Bundesgesundheitsamt), the Federal Ministry of the Interior as well as the Medical Chamber, the German Dentist Association, and the Pharmacists’ Chamber about their suspicion about Thalidomide.

Source: Chronology of events provided by Beate Kirk, in: Der Conterganfall: eine unvermeidbare Arzneimittelkatastrophe? Dissertation. Greifswald 1998.