Twenty five years ago his grandfather’s company was almost destroyed by the most notorious medicines scandal of modern history, but today Sebastian Wirtz is sanguine about the future.

In the early 1970s, after a 10-year struggle, Grunenthal paid more than the value of the entire business - DM100m or about £100m at current values - into a compensation fund for the victims of thalidomide, its best-selling sedative withdrawn because of severe side effects.