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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]
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims is a nonfiction book authored by Jennifer Vanderbes and published by Random House in 2023. It tells the story of how Frances Oldham Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found flaws in thalidomide research.
TIL that Thalidomide, the drug responsible for thousands of birth defects across Europe in the 1950s/60s, was developed by a doctor who had previously worked for the Nazis, experimenting on ...
Opioids are among the world's oldest known drugs. [13] [14] Use of the opium poppy for medical, recreational, and religious purposes can be traced to the 4th century BCE, when Hippocrates wrote about it for its analgesic properties, stating, "Divinum opus est sedare dolores." ("Divine work is the easing of pain") [15]
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 ...