THALIDOMIDE TRAGEDY By Doxa
Have you ever wondered how one of the best-selling drugs in the 1950s led to one of the largest medical disasters in the world? Thalidomide was developed and produced by the German pharmaceutical company Chemie Grunenthal in the late 1950s. It was intended as a sedative and tranquilliser initially, but soon people found it useful in treating other conditions like cold, nausea and morning sickness in pregnant women (Science Museum, 2019). There were misleading advertisements such as, “Distaval can be given with complete safety to pregnant women and nursing mothers without adverse effect on mother or child”, which was claimed by The Distillers Company Ltd in the United Kingdom, though there was no evidence from studies in humans to support their statement (MedicalNewsToday, 2020) and there was a lack of drug trials on both humans and
animals. Most importantly, there had been no tests on pregnant animals. Thalidomide was seen as a very safe drug where no prescription was needed, as it would not do any harm to humans and even pregnant women could take it. As a result, thousands of pregnant women purchased this popular drug, which was widely used in 46 countries while not knowing that it could be passed through the placental barrier and could possibly do harm to their developing foetus in the womb (Science Museum, 2019). Later, the next year, over 10,000 infants worldwide were born with severe birth defects such as brain damage and Phocomelia, with nearly 40% of the affected infants having passed away (PMC, 2011). This is the Thalidomide Tragedy; an event that caused the end of many infants’ lives. It was also the start of a change in both the way drugs are tested and peoples’ views on the importance of drug trials and drug
development. At that time, not knowing what had caused the tragedy to happen in the first place and having a lack of knowledge of Thalidomide, Dr. Widukind Lenz was the first researcher who noticed a link between this drug and the birth defects. He pointed out that the mothers who gave birth to babies with birth defects had all taken Thalidomide. He therefore carried out research and many investigations to study Thalidomide in order to prove his hypothesis. In fact, Thalidomide is a chiral molecule that exists as a pair of optical isomers; pairs of molecules that are non-superimposable mirrorimages (Kerboodle.com, 2022). Through the chromatographic separation technique, scientists suggested that Thalidomide is made up of enantiomers R and S, where enantiomer R is an effective sedative medication and enantiomer S is responsible for the MALVERN ST JAMES
GIRLS’ SCHOOL
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