By Frederick Dove
BBC World Service
Fifty years ago, the sedative Thalidomide was withdrawn after thousands of mothers gave birth to disabled babies. That ageing Thalidomide generation now faces rising care bills - but some hope a possible Nazi link to the drug could bring more compensation.In November 1961, I was five months old. My family had no idea why their otherwise healthy baby boy had been born with short arms, twisted hands and no thumbs.
But by the end of that month, the truth was finally out in the open.
After a German newspaper reported that Thalidomide was the likely cause for the mysterious spate of disabled babies born in Germany since 1958, the drug's producer, Chemie Gruenenthal, caved in to growing pressure, and on 26 November withdrew all products containing Thalidomide from what had been very lucrative, over-the-counter sales.
A few days later, Thalidomide's British licensee, Distillers, followed suit in the UK. But by then, the damage was done.
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187.Larynxa
7 Hours ago
The work of Frances Oldham Kelsey (Administrator for the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, in 1960) should be noted here. Unlike officials in other countries, she refused to bow to pressure from the manufacturer to approve the drug. During this delay, word of the first deformed babies came out. Her insistence on further safety testing meant that there were NO Thalidomide babies born in the USA.
Something to think about in the context of current "fast-tracking" by the FDA.
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- Ironically, this devastating drug has http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide#Revived_interest">shown promise in the treatment of other diseases.
