Thalidomide - The Story You Don’t Know (Part Two)

This is the second episode of a  two parter about  a new investigation into the drug thalidomide, so if you haven’t listened to part one, please do go back and listen to that first.

Thalidomide is one of the greatest medical catastrophes of the 20th century. It’s now thought to have been  responsible for around 100,000 miscarriages and disabled children.

In this episode, journalist Jennifer Vanderbes reveals the second half of the story. The result of six years of research, resulting in her recent book: Wonder Drug: The Hidden Victims of America’s Secret Thalidomide Scandal.

After thalidomide’s launch in 1957 by the Germany company Chemie Grunenthal, four years on, doctors in a number of countries, are becoming increasingly concerned about the drug’s effects.

In Australia obstetrician, Dr William McBride, having delivered several disabled babies in mothers who were given thalidomide, starts to conduct animal experiments and becomes convinced the drug is linked to the disabilities he is seeing.

While in Germany, geneticist Dr Widukund Lenz's analysis of babies whose mothers  have taken thalidomide, produces what he believes is a clear evidence that the drug is very far from safe. The devastating disabilities being caused in new born babies, include a shortening or absence of limbs; hands and feet that don’t fully form; and damage to ears, eyes, brain, skeleton and internal organs.

So the pressure to take the drug off the market grows.

And in the States, further children will be harmed as unbeknownst to the FDA, the drug has been dispensed by over one thousand doctors. This is despite the fact that it has not been approved for use, a development which will add further heartbreak  to the tragedy. In total, Vanderbes estimates that five million doses of thalidomide were distributed in America.

Jennifer Vanderbes Wonder Drug: The Hidden Victims of America’s Secret Thalidomide Scandal is published by Harper Collins.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

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