Wonder drug : the secret history of Thalidomide in America and its hidden victims /
Vanderbes, Jennifer,
Wonder drug : the secret history of Thalidomide in America and its hidden victims / Secret history of Thalidomide in America and its hidden victims Jennifer Vanderbes. - First edition. - xvii, 410 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Part I: The rookie -- Part II: The drug -- Part III: The fight -- Part IV: The cost.
"When the application for a new sedative called Kevadon--commonly known as thalidomide--landed on Frances Kelsey's desk at the FDA in 1960, it seemed destined to sail through the review process. The drug, billed as entirely risk-free, was already being sold in forty-six countries. But when Kelsey learned that the drug caused terrible birth defects, she and a team of dedicated doctors, parents, and journalists fought Merrell, the drug's American manufacturer, and Chemie-Gruenenthal, the German company founded by former Nazis that first synthesized the drug, to recall the product. It marked a rare victory in America's perennial battle between capitalism and consumer protection. Though Kelsey received a presidential medal and a LIFE magazine photo spread of European children missing limbs shocked American readers, an essential chapter laid buried for decades. Jennifer Vanderbes discovered that even though Frances Kelsey refused to approve Merrell's application to "sell" thalidomide in the United States, the drug firm, under the guise of clinical trials, had quietly sent millions of pills to doctors nationwide. Years before that, an additional drug company had asked doctors to test the drug on patients. The toxic sedative that was ostensibly "never sold" in America had, in fact, been distributed for five years, reaching tens of thousands of unwitting patients, including hundreds of pregnant women"--
9780525512264 0525512268
2022049196
Thalidomide--History.--United States
Thalidomide--Side effects--United States.
Pharmaceutical industry--Moral and ethical aspects.
Informational works.
Wonder drug : the secret history of Thalidomide in America and its hidden victims / Secret history of Thalidomide in America and its hidden victims Jennifer Vanderbes. - First edition. - xvii, 410 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Part I: The rookie -- Part II: The drug -- Part III: The fight -- Part IV: The cost.
"When the application for a new sedative called Kevadon--commonly known as thalidomide--landed on Frances Kelsey's desk at the FDA in 1960, it seemed destined to sail through the review process. The drug, billed as entirely risk-free, was already being sold in forty-six countries. But when Kelsey learned that the drug caused terrible birth defects, she and a team of dedicated doctors, parents, and journalists fought Merrell, the drug's American manufacturer, and Chemie-Gruenenthal, the German company founded by former Nazis that first synthesized the drug, to recall the product. It marked a rare victory in America's perennial battle between capitalism and consumer protection. Though Kelsey received a presidential medal and a LIFE magazine photo spread of European children missing limbs shocked American readers, an essential chapter laid buried for decades. Jennifer Vanderbes discovered that even though Frances Kelsey refused to approve Merrell's application to "sell" thalidomide in the United States, the drug firm, under the guise of clinical trials, had quietly sent millions of pills to doctors nationwide. Years before that, an additional drug company had asked doctors to test the drug on patients. The toxic sedative that was ostensibly "never sold" in America had, in fact, been distributed for five years, reaching tens of thousands of unwitting patients, including hundreds of pregnant women"--
9780525512264 0525512268
2022049196
Thalidomide--History.--United States
Thalidomide--Side effects--United States.
Pharmaceutical industry--Moral and ethical aspects.
Informational works.