About this episode
In the 1960s, thousands of babies worldwide were born with physical abnormalities, and the culprit was a 'wonder drug' given to mothers who had morning sickness. Pharmaceutical companies promoting the drug Thalidomide didn't do enough testing on pregnant women before marketing their product directly to them (well, legal testing anyway; there was most likely testing in Concentration Camps during WWII).
In the US, there were only 17 documented cases thanks to the tireless work of the FDA's Frances Oldham Kelsey, who refused to approve Thalidomide without further documentation.
In the UK, Health Minister Enoch Powell took the documentation at face value and left the drug on the shelves even after he knew of the issues. Families were left alone to care for their children until Harold Evans of The Sunday Times fought a moral campaign across Britain to get them their due compensation and ongoing support.
Learn more about this dark chapter in Pharmacological history with us this week on Doomed to Fail.
Sources:
Frances Oldham Kelsey, the Fda, and the Battle Against Thalidomide by Cheryl Krasnick Warshn- https://www.josephbeth.com/book/9780197632543
Attacking the Devil - Harold Evans and The Last Nazi War Crime - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HSlQCR3lGU
“Wonder Drug” draws back the veil on thalidomide’s hidden American victims https://harvardpublichealth.org/policy-practice/thalidomide-the-untold-american-story-in-wonder-drug/
Thalidomide: the story they suppressed - https://www.thetimes.com/article/thalidomide-the-story-they-suppressed-xqpwccdff
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BCnenthal
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