German Pharmaceutical Company to Compensate East German Athletes Who Were Doped

BERLIN, Germany, October 22. THE German pharmaceutical group Schering-Jenapharm, which produced doping products for athletes for the former East Germany, will pay 25,000 euros ($25,000) to a fund to compensate victims, according to the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel.

The move comes after the German Interior Ministry had strongly urged pharmaceutical groups to give a financial commitment to those affected, believed to be between 500 and 1,000 athletes, many of whom were very young at the time they were systematically doped.

The systematic doping system put in place by the old communist regime churned out world class athletes, particularly in track and field and women's swimming, between 1973 and 1989.

Former athletes are now suffering from liver tumors, mental disorders, fertility problems and severe hormonal disturbances, and an unusually large percentage of female former athletes have given birth to babies with physical deformities and other abnormalities.

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