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In 1952, thalidomide was synthesised by Chemical Industry Basel, but was found "to have no effect on animals" and was discarded on that basis. [40] In 1957, it was acquired by Chemie Grünenthal in Germany. [40] The German company had been established as a soap maker after World War II ended, to address the urgent market need for antibiotics. [41]
Feet of a baby born to a mother who had taken thalidomide while pregnant. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the use of thalidomide in 46 countries was prescribed to women who were pregnant or who subsequently became pregnant, and consequently resulted in the "biggest anthropogenic medical disaster ever," with more than 10,000 children born with a range of severe deformities, such as ...
In November 1961, thalidomide was thus taken off the market. [11] [12] Thalidomide caused severe deformities in the children of women who took the drug during pregnancy. Experts estimate that the drug thalidomide led to the death of about 2,000 children and serious birth defects in more than 10,000 children, about 5,000 of them in West Germany.
McBride published a letter in The Lancet, in December 1961, noting a large number of birth defects in children of patients who were prescribed thalidomide, [9] after a midwife named Sister Pat Sparrow first suspected the drug was causing birth defects in the babies of patients under his care at Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney. [10]
Thalidomide was eventually found to cause miscarriages, severe birth defects in babies whose mothers had taken the medication while pregnant, and severe nerve damage. [1] [failed verification] [2] In January 1968, Mückter was put on trial along with other Grünenthal employees. The trial ended abruptly in April 1970 with a settlement ...
As director of the Krefeld Children's Hospital, Wiedemann was one of the first to recognise the fatal side effects of thalidomide. While initially considered safe, thalidomide was responsible for teratogenic deformities in children born after their mothers used it during pregnancies, prior to the third trimester. In November 1961, thalidomide ...
Jacob Sheskin, sometimes written as Sheskin Jacob (Hebrew: יעקב שסקין; 1914 – April 17, 1999) was a Russian-born Israeli physician best known for his 1964 serendipitous discovery that thalidomide can be used as a treatment for leprosy at Hadassah University in Jerusalem.
Frances Kathleen Oldham Kelsey CM (née Oldham; July 24, 1914 – August 7, 2015) was a Canadian-American [1] pharmacologist and physician. As a reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), she refused to authorize thalidomide for market because she had concerns about the lack of evidence regarding the drug's safety. [2]