Grünenthal is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Aachen in Germany. It was founded in 1946 as Chemie Grünenthal and has been continuously family-owned. The company was the first to introduce penicillin into the German market in the postwar period, after the Allied Control Council lifted its ban. Grünenthal became infamous in the 1950s and 1960s for the development and sale of the teratogenic drug thalidomide, marketed as the sleeping pill Contergan and promoted as a morning sickness preventive. Thalidomide caused severe birth defects, miscarriages, and other severe health problems. Though these side effects were proven conclusively in 1959, and 1962, Grünenthal continued marketing the drug well into the 1970s and 1980s. The company generates more than 50 percent of its income with pain medications such as Tramadol. The company has two offices in Germany as well as subsidiaries in Europe, Latin America, the US, and China. In November 2016, the company acquired Thar Pharmaceuticals and in 2018 Averitas Pharma. History Chemie Grünenthal was founded in 1946 by Hermann Wirtz, Sr. A former Nazi party member, as Chemie Grünenthal GmbH in Stolberg (Rhineland). Later, it was renamed Grünenthal GmbH, and its headquarters were moved to Aachen. The Allied Control Council had prohibited the research and manufacture of penicillin by German companies. When the ban was lifted, Grünenthal was the first company to introduce penicillin in the postwar period into the German market. This investment achieved a big financial boost for the company. Thalidomide (Contergan) Under its Head of Research Heinrich Mückter, a former Nazi scientist, Grünenthal synthesised thalidomide in 1954 and acquired a 20-year patent. Soon after obtaining its patent in April 1954, the company started clinical trials, and from November 1956, marketed the drug for the treatment of respiratory infections under the trade name Grippex, a combination drug that contained thalidomide, quinine, vitamin C, phenacetin, and acetylsalicylic acid. Researchers at Chemie Grünenthal also found that the drug was particularly effective for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness, although no trials were run with pregnant women. In 1957, the company began marketing thalidomide as Contergan. In 1958, an unusual number of deformities in newborns were reported in Germany. However, scientists first assumed nuclear tests to be the reason for that. Only in late 1961, researchers found out that Contergan must be the cause. In November 1961, thalidomide was thus taken off the market. Thalidomide caused severe deformities in the children of